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Sinopah the Indian Boy 








"I CALL HIM SINOPAh!" 



(p. 15) 



SINOPAH 

The Indian Boy 

BY 

Tames Willard Schultz 

•^ 'J 

(ap-i-kun-i) 

with illustrations by 
E. BOYD SMITH 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



£ 



COPYRIGHT, I913, BY JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published March iqtj 



$A/0 



Contents 

I. SiNOPAH GETS HIS NaME I 

II. SiNOPAH AND SiNOPAH 1 7 

III. SiNOPAH AND HIS PLAYFELLOWS ... 33 

IV. Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo . 43 

V. The Clay Toys 54 

VI. The Story of Scarface 69 

VII. The Buffalo Trap 83 

VIII. Spinning Top 99 

IX. Sinopah's First Bow .< 113 

X. Tracking a Mountain Lion . . . .126 

XI. SiNOPAH joins the Mosquito Society . .141 



Illustrations 



«I CALL HIM Sinopah!" (page IS) • • Frontispiece ^ 
His little body actually flew through the ^ 

AIR ^ 

Then it was that he suddenly turned . . 96 ^^ 
It was a fine shot • 

Fran drawings by E, Boyd Smith 



124^ 



SINOPAH 

The Indian Boy 

CHAPTER I 

SINOPAH GETS HIS NAME 

THIS is the story of Sinopah, a Black- 
foot Indian boy; he who afterward 
became the great chief Pitamakan, 
or, as we say, the Running Eagle. I knew 
Pitamakan well; also his white friend and 
partner in many adventures, Thomas Fox. 
Both were my friends; they talked to me 
much about their boyhood days, so you may 
know that this is a true story. 

It was a great many years ago, in the time 
of the buffalo, that Sinopah was born, and 
it was on a warm, sunny day in June that 
he first saw the light of the sun, to which he 
was afterward to make many a prayer. The 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

great camp of the Blackfeet was pitched on 
the Two Medicine River, one of the pretti- 
est streams in all Montana. Only a few miles 
to the west of the camp the sharp peaks of 
the Rocky Mountains rose for thousands of 
feet into the clear blue air. To the north, and 
south, and east the great plains stretched 
away to the very edge of the horizon, and 
they were now green with the fresh grasses 
of spring. The mile- wide valley of the Two 
Medicine lay like a great gash in the plain, 
and several hundred feet below it. Along the 
shores of the stream there was a belt of tim- 
ber : big Cottonwood trees, with bunches of 
willow, service berry, and rose-brush growing 
under them. Elsewhere the wide, level bot- 
toms were splotched with the green of low- 
land grass and the pale silver-green of sweet 
sage. Thousands of horses grazed on these 
bottoms and out on the near plains; the 
Blackfeet had so many of the animals that 
they could not count them all in a week's 
time. There were more than five hundred 

2 



Sinopah gets his Name 

lodges, or wigwams, in the camp, and they 
were strung along the bottom, just outside of 
the timber belt, for several miles. Each lodge 
was the home of one or two families, the aver- 
age being eight persons to the lodge, so there 
were about four thousand people in this one 
camp of the three tribes of the Blackfeet 
Nation. 

Those were wild days in which Sinopah 
was born. Fort Benton, owned by the Amer- 
ican Fur Company, was the only white 
settlement in all Montana. The Blackfeet 
owned all of the country from the Saskatche- 
wan River, in Canada, south to the Yellow- 
stone River, and from the Rocky Mountains 
eastward for more than three hundred miles. 
The plains were covered with buffalo and an- 
telope ; in the mountains and along the rivers 
were countless numbers of elk, deer, bighorn, 
moose, black and grizzly bears, wolves, and 
many smaller animals. So it was that the 
Blackfeet were very rich. They had always 
plenty of meat and berries, soft robes and 

3 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

furs, and with their many horses they roamed 
about on their great plains and hunted, and 
were happy. 

Usually the birth of a child in the great 
camp was hardly mentioned. But on this June 
morning the news spread quickly from one end 
to the other of it that in the lodge of White 
Wolf there was a baby boy. There was much 
talk about it because White Wolf was a great 
chief, and it was well known that he had long 
wanted a son. Everybody now said that the 
gods had been good, and had given him his 
wish. All that day the medicine men and war- 
riors kept going to his lodge to say how pleased 
they were that this had come to him. 

The chief's lodge was a very large one. It 
was made of twenty cow buffalo skins that 
had been tanned into soft leather, cut to the 
right shape, and sewed together with sinew 
thread. This, the lodge skin, as it was called, 
was stretched over twenty-four long, tough, 
and slender pine poles set in the shape of a 
cone. The lower edge or skirt of the skin did 

4 



Sinopah gets his Name 

not touch the ground by a space of something 
like four inches. But inside there was a lin- 
ing of leather, weighted to the ground by the 
couches and sacks of household property, and 
extending upward for five or six feet. Thus, 
between this lining and the outer lodge skin 
there was a space of the thickness of the lodge 
poles, and this was the draught flue. The cold 
air rushed up through it and out of the open 
top of the lodge, carrying with it the smoke 
from the fire. There were two large wings, or 
"ears," at the top of the skin, held stretched 
out by two long poles. These were shifted 
one way or another to protect the opening 
from the wind, and so the lodge was always 
free from smoke. The skin was waterproof; 
the lining kept the wind out; and so, even in 
the coldest winter weather, a very small fire 
in the centre of the lodge made the people 
very comfortable. At night, when the fire 
died out, they lay in their warm beds of buf- 
falo robes and slept just as well as you do in 
your warm home. 

S 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

It was in the afternoon that Wesley Fox, 
a great man of the American Fur Company, 
and uncle of Thomas Fox, came to White 
Wolf's lodge. A number of warriors coming 
out of it greeted him pleasantly. He waited 
until they had passed, then raised the curtain 
of the little, oblong doorway, and stepped in- 
side. "Ok-yi'/' (Welcome) said White Wolf, 
and motioned him to a place on his right, 
which was the seat for honored guests. The 
chief's face was all smiles. He rubbed his 
hands together, then spatted them, and said, 
in his own language, of course, " White 
brother mine, this is the happiest day of my 
life. I have a son. Look, now, what a fine 
one he is, how big for one born this day as 
the sun was coming up. We are going to 
name him right away, and I ask you to stay 
and take part in the naming feast.'' 

Wesley Fox was already looking at the 
child, or, rather, at its head, which was all of 
it that could be seen. It was wrapped around 
and around, arms and all, in several bandages 

6 



Sinopah gets his Name 

of soft cloth, and then laced into a cradle, 
the back of which was a piece of rough-hewn 
board. The lacings held the roll of him flat 
against it : he could not move hand or foot, 
or his head either, except for an inch or two 
to the right or left. Altogether, in his odd 
wrappings and lacings, he looked like a little 
mummy from the tombs of the Egyptian 
kings. The cradle was propped up at the foot 
of his mother's couch, so that he rested in an 
almost upright position. The mother, half 
sitting up against a willow slat back-rest, 
gazed across the length of the couch at the 
round little face, and there was a world of 
love shining in her big dark eyes. 

The baby's face, as well as its short, thin 
hair, was of a red bronze color. It had a 
funny, tender little mouth, and its eyes were 
very bright. All at once it began to pucker 
its mouth and make a queer little cry. 

" There ! there ! mother," the chief said 
anxiously, " it is crying ; maybe it is sick. 
Oh, what if it should get real sick and die ? 

7 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

Do something at once for it, woman. If you 
don't know what to do, I '11 get some wise 
old women to come in." 

" There is nothing wrong with it. All ba- 
bies cry a little,'* said the mother. And rais- 
ing herself, she caught hold of the bottom 
of the cradle and drew it to her. There was no 
more crying, and the chief was happy again. 

Presently an old, old medicine man, or sun 
priest, came in, followed by a number of war- 
riors and women, all of them relatives of 
White Wolf or of his wife. They were made 
welcome, and filling and lighting his great 
stone pipe the chief passed it to the man near- 
est him, and then it went clear around the 
circle, each one of the guests taking a few 
whiffs of smoke. 

After the smoke several women of the lodge 
passed around the feast, giving to each guest 
a wooden dish containing broiled buffalo 
tongue, dried camas root, and fresh, puckery 
berries of the red willow. There was much 
talk and laughter. The women passed the 

8 



Sinopah gets his Name 

baby from one to another, kissing it, saying 
how much it looked like its father, and talk- 
ing foolish little words to it just as white 
women do to a baby of their kind. 

The feast was soon over. No one was really 
hungry and only a very small portion of the 
food was eaten. The old medicine man, I-kus- 
kin-i, or Low Horn, by name, had brought 
his own pipe, and now filled and lighted it 
and passed it around. He knew why he had 
been invited to the lodge, but for all that it 
was White Wolfs duty to tell the reason for 
the gathering of relatives, and so the chief 
made a little speech. 

"Relatives and friends,*' he said, "soon 
after the sun came in sight this morning, he 
looked down and saw my new-born boy. Be- 
fore he goes out of sight to his lodge to-night, 
I think it right that he should know the new- 
born's name. So it is that I have asked you 
all to gather here. I call upon our old friend 
Low Horn to say what the name shall be, 
and I now make him a small present: Low 

9 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

Horn, in my band of horses grazing out yon- 
der on the plain is a certain four-year-old 
black-and-white pinto. I give him to you. 
A white three-year-old, a roan four-year-old 
with a split ear, and a gray five-year-old, well 
broken and a swift buffalo runner, I also give 
you. Let us hear the name.'' 

"Yes, yes!" every one exclaimed; "let us 
hear the name, O wise one." 

There followed a long silence. The old 
medicine man sat bowed over in deep thought. 
In his hands was a small buckskin sack orna- 
mented with bands of colored porcupine quill 
embroidery. Presently he laid the sack on 
the ground, straightened up, and said : — 

" We all know that the naming of a new- 
born boy is an important matter. Some names 
bring good luck, some bring bad luck. I am 
going to try hard to give this little one a name 
that will please the gods, and cause them to 
favor him. 

" Listen ! It was long ago in my young 
days. One winter day I took my bow and 

lO 



Sinopah gets his Name 

arrows and walked up on the plain to hunt 
buffalo. I saw a large band of them on some 
far hills and started out that way toward them. 
The day was cloudy and before I left camp 
people were saying that more snow was about 
to fall. After sighting the buffalo I hoped that 
a storm would come, for in the thick of it 
the animals would be easily approached. I 
walked on and on as fast as I could, for the 
herd was a long way off. When I was out in 
the middle of the great plain, Cold-Maker 
suddenly came out of the north. As always, 
he hid himself in the thick snowfall, which he 
drove in all directions with fierce cold winds. 
No one has ever seen the shape of him be- 
cause of that. The stinging snow beat against 
my face, then at my back, then swirled around 
and around me. I could not see the distance 
of twenty steps in any direction, and knew 
not which way was the river and camp. I 
was lost and beginning to freeze. I prayed 
the gods to have pity ; in some way to show 
me the way to the river. 

II 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

** Then out of the awful swirling and drift- 
ing snow came a little creature with head 
down and drooping tail. It was a Sinopah. 
[The "swift'' or "kit" fox of the North- 
western plains.] 

" It passed close to me, showing no fear, 
just looking up once at me, its black eyes 
shining strangely, deep down in its snow- 
caked hair : ' Oh, little brother,' I cried, ' you 
are going to the sheltering timber of the river. 
Do not haste ; guide me thither, else I die.* 

" Sinopah was almost out of sight then, 
although so near. But when I asked for his 
help, he stopped and looked back, as if wait- 
ing for me. I walked toward him as fast as I 
could, holding my robe close against my face 
so as to shield it from the stinging snow. 
Sinopah waited until I was within ten steps 
of him, then pushed sidling on against the 
drift until nearly out of sight again, when he 
stopped as before, as if waiting. And so we 
went on and on. Sometimes the wind was in 
my face, sometimes beating against my side 

12 



Sinopah gets his Name 

or back, but I knew that that was a trick of 
Cold-Maker. He wanted to confuse me ; to 
make me think that I was going now in one 
direction, and again turning another way. He 
wanted me to go around and around in a cir- 
cle until he could kill me with his freezing 
winds. 

"Through it all I had faith. I believed 
that the gods had heard my prayers; that 
Sinopah had been sent by them to save me. 
Sometimes, when it seemed as if he certainly 
had turned and was going straight back the 
way we had come, doubts for a moment filled 
my mind, but I thrust them out. The cold 
grew more and more bitter ; the snow rushed 
and whirled into deeper and deeper drifts. I 
became weary ; I wanted to lie down and sleep ; 
and at the last it was all I could do to strug- 
gle on. I could not have traveled much far- 
ther when suddenly we began to descend a 
steep hill, and I knew that we were leav- 
ing the plain and going down into the river 
valley. It was so. We soon got to the bottom 

13 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

and went on through the tall sagebrush of 
the lowlands. And then, seemingly very far 
off, but really only a few steps distant, the 
naked branches of cottonwoods appeared in 
the thick, driving snow, and I could hear the 
wind crying through them. I hastened then, 
as fast as I could, and soon stood in the shelter 
of the timber bordering the river. Right in 
front of me was a dead, bent old tree that I 
remembered having seen before; the camp 
was just a little way up from it. * Little 
brother,' I cried, 'you have saved me.' 

"But Sinopah was gone. I could not see 
him anywhere about. I went on and soon 
came to the camp and to my own lodge. I 
was saved. Sinopah had led me straight home. 
There and then I made a vow: ever afterward, 
when passing the dens of the Sinopahs, if I 
had meat I dropped a piece of it for them 
and their young." 

"Ah, hah, hai!" all the guests exclaimed. 
" How wonderful. Great medicine was Sino- 
pah." 

14 



Sinopah gets his Name 

" Pass me the new-born one," said Low 
Horn. 

A woman placed the laced little form in 
his hands and he looked long and kindly down 
at the round, smooth face. Then, taking sa- 
cred, dull-red paint from a little buckskin 
sack, he carefully rubbed it on the baby's 
forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. Lastly he 
held the child face upward toward the sun, 
and said : " O all-powerful Sun, and you, 
Nap-i (Old Man), Maker-of-the- World : be- 
hold, I have painted the new-born one with 
your own sacred color, and now I name him. 
I give him a name for his young days. A 
name to last until he becomes a warrior and 
makes a name for himself. I call him Sino- 
pah. 

**Have pity on Sinopah, O you great ones. 
Make him grow up strong and brave ; fill his 
heart with love for father and mother, and 
kind feeling for all our people. Give him long 
life, O Maker-of-the-World, and you, won- 
derful Maker-of-the-Days. Have pity on us 

15 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

all, men, women, and children ; give us all long 
life. I have said." 

" Ai ! Ai ! You gods, have pity on us," all 
the guests cried, and at that they all arose and 
went their ways. The boy was named. 



CHAPTER II 

SINOPAH AND SINOPAH 

ALL summer long, and all through 
the many moons of winter, the little 
Sinopah remained laced against his 
cradle-board the greater part of the time. The 
object in keeping him in such a position was 
so to shape the bones of his body that he would 
grow straight. Straight as an arrow, instead of 
round-shouldered and bent, as so many white 
children are allowed to take shape by careless 
or ignorant mothers. The close confinement 
in the cradle did not hurt him at all ; but 
sometimes the one position grew irksome and 
the baby fretted. Then the mother would 
take him out of the cradle and let him roll 
naked on her couch until he tired and fell 
asleep, when back he would be put against 
the cradle-board. 

When summer came again, Sinopah was 
17 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

a year old, and from that moon of his first 
birthday he spent less and less time in the 
cradle, and more and more time in creeping 
about on his mother's couch, or near her out 
on the clean, short grass. Then, along in the 
autumn, after many attempts, he toddled on 
uncertain legs from his mother's to his fa- 
ther's knee as the two sat a few feet apart in 
the lodge. That was a great day for White 
Wolf. Straightway he gave a feast and sum- 
moned all the relatives, that they too might 
see his young son walk. Uncles and aunts, 
they all loved the child and were proud of 
him ; and his old gray-headed grandfather, 
Mik-sik-um, or Red Crane, was his almost 
constant companion as soon as he began to 
creep. 

On this day the little fellow wore for the 
first time the suit of war-clothes his mother 
had been long in making. The clean, white, 
fringed buckskin shirt blazed with bright 
embroidery work, of dyed porcupine quills. 
The breech-clout of red cloth was held in 

i8 



Sinopah and Sinopah 

place with a beaded belt. The fringed buck- 
skin leggings were painted with small diag- 
onal stripes of yellow and red ochre. The 
dainty little moccasins were embroidered 
with a solid mass of fine, glittering beads in 
the symbol of the sun. Very quaint and brave 
he looked in all his finery, and his infant mind 
and eyes were pleased with it all. He crowed 
and gurgled and laughed, and, with many a 
fall between, went from one to another of 
the admiring circle of guests. 

Once he fell and struck his head against his 
father's tobacco-board. All present there held 
their breath, anxiously watching to see what 
he would do. But he did not cry: he sat up 
quickly, made a wry face, rubbed the bruised 
spot for a moment, then got up and lurched 
on to his mother's arms. 

"Oh-ho-hai ! '* every one exclaimed, clap- 
ping hand to mouth ; " he heeds not pain; he 
perseveres; he will become a great warrior." 

"I give him a yellow pinto mare and a 
brown mare," cried an uncle. ** White Wolf, 

19 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

come and get them out of my band to- 
morrow and put them with your herd." 

Then up spoke one after another of the 
guests, each making a present of one or more 
animals. In a few minutes the Httle Sinopah 
became the owner of thirty -five good, young 
mares: "Oh-ho-hai!'* the old grandfather 
quavered, joyfully smiling and rubbing his 
wrinkled hands together, " think of the colts 
that will be coming every spring. Before 
ever Sinopah is able to go to war, he will be 
rich.'' 

Up to this time Sinopah had been bathed 
in tepid water in the lodge. His father now 
took him in hand and upon arising every 
morning carried him to the river for a quick 
dip in the cold water. It was cold, the au- 
tumn frosts having already begun, but, though 
the little fellow's tender flesh shrank from 
contact with it and he gasped, never a cry 
came from his firm-set lips. Day after day 
the weather grew colder. Winter came and 
the streams and lakes froze over, but the 

20 



Sinopah and Sinopah 

morning bath was continued just the same, 
holes frequently having to be chopped in the 
ice in order to get into the water. And no 
matter how cold it was, Sinopah went naked 
in his father's arms from the warm bed out 
on the snapping, groaning river ice, and into 
the water without a murmur. Afterward, 
following a rub before the fire, he felt so 
strong and lively that he couldn't sit still 
a minute, and while his mother cooked the 
morning meal. White Wolf sat on watch to 
keep him from tumbling into the fire. The 
early morning bath was taken by all the Black- 
feet, young and old, every day in the year. 
They believed that it enabled them to hunt 
on the plains in the very coldest weather, 
without freezing, and they were right. I 
have seen them cutting up game with bare 
hands when the weather was so cold that I 
did not dare take off my gloves for even a 
moment; and yet not even their finger tips 
were nipped by the cruel frost. 

Sinopah had no other food than his mo- 

21 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

ther's milk until his teeth were well grown. 
After that time he lived almost entirely on 
the meat of buffalo and other game, with 
sometimes a few berries and roots, fresh or 
dried. Fat buffalo meat was very nourishing. 
The women broiled or boiled it, and when 
great quantities of it were brought in by the 
hunters, they cut it into thin sheets and dried 
it in the sun for future use. Sometimes they 
pounded the dried meat into particles as fine 
as meal, and made pemmican of it. This was 
done by mixing the pounded meat with mar- 
row grease ; that is, grease taken from the 
bones of the animals. When mixed, the stuff 
was put into bags of freshly killed hide, and 
then the mouths of the bags were sewed up. 
As the hide became dry it shrank tightly 
around the pemmican and made a very solid 
and heavy package. One of these, not larger 
than a half-bushel measure, weighed more 
than a hundred pounds. The grease pre- 
served the meat, and the hide pretty well 
kept the air from it. The mixture was always 

22 



Sinopah and Sinopah 

sweet and good for many months, and was so 
very rich that a half pound of it was enough 
for a meal for a big, hungry man. All the 
Blackfeet women kept a supply of pemmi- 
can constantly on hand. It was considered a 
great delicacy, and was most often used for a 
part of a feast or gathering of the people. 

When Sinopah was three years old, his 
father brought him one day a fuzzy, gray- 
haired animal which he had captured out on 
the plains. It was a "swift'' or "kit" fox 
not more than a month old. " There, my 
son, is a pet for you," he said ; " and now we 
have two Sinopah young ones in this lodge ; 
one with two legs, and one with four." 

Sinopah was not old enough to understand 
that, but he reached out for the funny little 
animal and held it tight to his breast. It did 
not offer to bite him, and was still too small 
to have any fear of man. It did fear the dogs 
at first, but soon became accustomed to them. 
Sinopah's mother fed it all the meat it could 
eat every day, and it became very tame and 

23 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

playful. It loved the boy best of all the people 
in the lodge, and at night always slept beside 
him, curling up in a little fluffy ball on the 
pillow. It never made any noise during the 
daytime, but at night, if alarmed by any- 
thing, it would rouse up and bark in the 
oddest kind of a way. The noise it made was 
very hoarse and rasping and muffled, as if it 
were trying to bark with its mouth full of 
food. 

White Wolf owned several hundred horses. 
They were allowed to graze out on the plains 
during the daytime, but at sundown they 
were all driven into camp and the leaders of 
the herd and the valuable bufl^alo runners and 
war-horses were picketed close to the lodge, 
to prevent the enemy stealing them. The 
Blackfeet were always at war with the Sioux, 
Crows, Crees, and other tribes, and parties of 
these warriors were always prowling around. 

One bright moonlight night, after the fire 
had died out and every one was sound asleep, 
the little fox gave a couple of hoarse, low 

24 



Sinopah and Sinopah 

growls that awakened Sinopah's mother. The 
moonlight was streaming straight down 
through the smoke-hole of the lodge, mak- 
ing everything inside as plain as day, and she 
could see the little fellow sniffing the air with 
its slender, black, keen nose, and working its 
big, long ears nervously as it cocked its head 
to one side and another, listening intently. 
** What hear you, little wise one ? What is it 
outside, O keen smeller?'* she whispered, 
reaching over and patting him on the back. 

Her caressing hand gave him courage ; he 
got up and sneaked out of the lodge, crouch- 
ing so close to the ground that his belly 
fairly touched it. The lodge skin was always 
kept raised a few inches at one side of the 
doorway so he could go and come whenever 
he chose to. This time he was gone no more 
than a minute. Back he came on the run, 
barking hoarsely, all his fur stiff on end, and 
climbed onto the couch, snuggling close to 
his best friend, Sinopah. 

" Wake up ! Wake up,'' the mother whis- 
25 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

pered, bending over White Wolf and shaking 
him. " Awake ! the Httle fox has been out- 
side and has returned terribly scared." 

No sooner were the words spoken than 
White Wolf was out of bed and making for 
the doorway of the lodge with gun in hand. 
Kneeling down he drew the curtain slowly 
aside and looked out: not ten steps away a 
man was untieing the rope of his best buffalo 
horse from the picket-pin. As quickly as pos- 
sible he poked his gun out, took aim, and 
fired. Bang it went, and following the report 
the man gave a piercing scream, leaped high 
in the air, and fell, never to move again. 

At that the whole camp was awakened. 
Men rushed out of their lodges and began 
shooting at a number of the enemy, some 
running away on foot, others riding off on 
horses they had already loosed from the pick- 
ets. Some of the women in the lodges cried 
wildly in their terror; children yelled; dogs 
barked and howled. But in White Wolfs 
lodge not a sound was to be heard. Little 

26 



Sinopah and Sinopah 

Sinopah waked up, heard the shooting and 
yelling and confusion of noise, and began to 
cry, but his mother quieted him at once: 
"There! there!'' she said, putting him back 
in the bed and covering him up; "it is no- 
thing; only some men come to steal horses 
and father is driving them away." 

But for all her brave words her heart was 
full of fear. The enemy was shooting back at 
the men of the camp; one of their bullets 
might make her a widow and Sinopah an 
orphan. She began praying the gods to bring 
White Wolf safely back. Shivering from 
fright the little fox stuck his nose under the 
robe covering of the couch, then wriggled 
down beside the boy and growled occasion- 
ally. The mother sat waiting and watching. 
The old grandfather had been fumbling back 
of his couch for his bow and quiver case. He 
found it now and went hobbling out of the 
lodge on his rheumatic legs, muttering what 
he would do to the enemy if he could get 
within bow-shot of them. 

27 



Smopahy the Indian Boy 

Soon after the old man went out, the shoot- 
ing and yelling ceased, and in a few moments 
the frightened women and children became 
quiet. Then, away out on the plain, faint at 
first, but growing louder and louder, was 
heard the victory song. All knew what that 
meant : the men of the camp had killed some 
of the enemy and were returning. At that 
the people began to pour out of the lodges, 
each one joyfully shouting the name of hus- 
band, brother, or son who had been in the 
fight. 

Sinopah's mother gently lifted him from 
the couch and hurried out with him in her 
arms, crying: " White Wolf ! My man White 
Wolf! He has fought the enemy and returns 
victorious ; a great chief is my man White 
Wolf." 

Close in front of the lodge a crowd of 
women and children was gathering, and she 
edged her way into it. There in their midst 
lay a man stretched out on his back, his 
wide-open, glassy eyes staring straight up at 

28 



Sinopah and Sinopah 

the moon ; but the light had gone out of 
them forever. 

Old Red Crane was bending over the body 
examining it : ** 'T is a Crow warrior/* he 
suddenly shouted, " and 't was my son who 
killed him. Great is White Wolf, the chief." 

"True ! True ! ** everyone cried. "White 
Wolf is a chief" 

The old man looked around, saw Sino- 
pah, and took him from his mother's arms : 
" Look, little one," he said : " See what your 
father has done. He has killed an enemy. 
That is a Crow warrior; your father killed 
him." 

Sinopah, looking down, clapped his hands 
and laughed. "Crow enemy," he lisped. 
" Father killed him." 

And then he saw a necklace of big, long 
grizzly bear claws around the man's neck : 
" Give me ! Give me ! " he cried, motioning 
at it impatiently with his little hand. " Sino- 
pah wants bear finger necklace." 

" Yes, yes. You shall have it," old Red 
29 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

Crane answered ; and stooping over he cut 
the string, then retied it and slipped the neck- 
lace over the boy's head. 

Sinopah shook it and the hard claws rat- 
tled against one another ; that pleased him 
and he laughed. 

Again Red Crane called his attention to 
the dead enemy and quavered : " When Sino- 
pah grows up he must be brave and kill many 
Crow men." 

The boy laughed and answered : " Sino- 
pah kill many Crows.'' 

Meantime the men of the camp, some on 
horses and some on foot, were coming closer, 
and still singing the victory song. At last they 
came into the camp bringing the scalps and 
weapons of five Crows they had overtaken 
and killed. True, the Crows had managed to 
take a few horses and get away with them, 
but that did not matter ; there were plenty 
of horses. The whole camp went wild with 
joy over the killing of the enemy. All the 
rest of the night there was feasting, singing, 

30 



' Sinopah and Sinopah 

and dancing, and over and over the men told 
how^ they had pursued the enemy and fought 
them. 

All of this made a deep impression upon 
Sinopah. In a way his child mind grasped 
the fact that to kill an enemy was the great- 
est thing a Blackfoot could do. All through 
the excitement Red Crane was by his side 
pointing out how the people praised his fa- 
ther, and making him repeat after them : 
"White Wolf! A great chief is White 
Wolf." 

When daylight came the old man led him 
out for another look at the dead Crow in 
front of the lodge, and the boy had no fear 
of the cold, still form. That was what the 
old grandfather wanted : to impress upon him 
the fact that a dead enemy was something to 
make the heart glad. 

It was later in the day that Sinopah*s 
mother told how the little fox had been first 
to discover the enemy and give the alarm. 
The story soon spread through the camp, 

31 



Sinopah) the Indian Boy 

and as owner of the pet, the boy came in 
for a share of the praise that was given it. 

Among others, the old medicine man Low 
Horn came to the lodge. After a smoke, he 
made those present a little speech : ** I can 
see that this little Sinopah is going to have 
great luck," he said. *• Surely the gods favor 
him. It was their will that he should have 
the pet fox that saved us some lives and our 
horses last night. My medicine tells me that 
this boy is to be a great warrior ; that he 
will live long ; that he will be full of pity 
for those who mourn, and generous to the 
aged and the widows and orphans/' 

" That is what we all pray for,'* said the 
old grandfather. " I hope that the gods will 
spare me a little while longer. I want to help 
White Wolf teach the boy. I want to be 
here to see him returning proud and success- 
ful from his first war-trail." 



CHAPTER III 

SINOPAH AND HIS PLAYFELLOWS 

IT was not until Sinopah was four years 
old that his mother ever let him out of 
her sight. If she missed him for a min- 
ute, even, she would run about and find him, 
and keep him close to her side. White Wolf 
often told her that she should give the little 
one more freedom, but for answer she would 
only shake her head and reply: "You are 
wrong. He is very much too young to be 
turned loose." 

So White Wolf let her have her way until 
Sinopah*s fourth summer came, and then he 
said to her one day: "You have done well 
with this boy of ours. You have fed him good 
food and kept him strong and healthy. But 
it is not right for a boy to be long kept in 
the lodge ; he must learn early to make a play 
of the things that he will have to do in ear- 

33 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

nest when he grows up. From this day on 
he shall go about as he pleases with the child- 
ren of the camp." 

" What you say to do must be done/' Tsist- 
saki replied, "and I know that you are right. 
But you know how it is with us women ; we 
are always timid. Therefore, for a time, when 
our son goes out to play, I will go too. At 
least I will be near enough to see that no 
harm comes to him.'' 

Tsistsaki, I had forgotten to tell you, was 
the name of Sinopah's mother. In the Black- 
foot language it means Little Bird Woman. 
That is a very pretty name and a very good 
one. Before her time many noted women of 
the tribe had borne it, and for that reason 
she was very glad that it had been given to 
her. 

In the next lodge there was a little boy 
seven years old, named Lone Bull, and his 
younger sister Otaki, Yellow Weasel Woman, 
with whom the little Sinopah was now allowed 
to play, and they were very glad to have him 

34 



Sinopah and his Playfellows 

with them. There were also many other 
children in that part of the camp, some of 
them much older than these, and often there 
would be twenty or thirty of them together in 
their different games. Better than all the rest, 
Sinopah liked Lone Bull and Otaki, perhaps 
because they lived so close to him, and then 
their mothers were very close friends. 

The two mothers got together one day 
and planned what was to be a surprise for the 
children. Having decided, they set to work 
and for all of a moon's time they were very 
busy when the little ones were out playing. 
And often, when all others were asleep, they 
worked far into the night by the light of the 
little lodge fires. Another part of the work 
was the training of three big dogs for their 
share in the game ; and right here I must tell 
you about this breed. 

The Indians never had horses until they 
obtained them from the Spaniards, who 
brought some to Mexico soon after the dis- 
covery of America. Before that time, and 

3S 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

long afterwards until these animals became 
plentiful in all the Western country, the 
Indians used dogs as pack-animals. When 
moving camp they were made to carry heavy 
bundles of household, or, rather, " lodge- 
hold '' things, and the hunters always made 
them lug in big packs of meat. Long before 
Sinopah was born, the Blackfeet had so many 
horses that the dogs were no longer used ; but 
the people loved the animals and had many of 
them ; some lodges as many as twenty-five or 
thirty. They were very tall and heavy, long- 
haired and broad-headed, and much of the 
color of the wolf, to which they were very 
closely related. At night when the wolves 
howled all around the camp, the dogs would 
answer them ; and then the people would say : 
" Listen ! They are talking to their brothers 
out there on the plain." 

The mothers made pack-saddles for the 
dogs, and got them used to being packed and 
led by a rawhide strand. Then one day, when 
the children were playing in the timber back 

36 



Sinopah and his Playfellows 

of the lodges, they packed all the things they 
had made on two of the dogs, and fastened 
the small ends of fourteen slender pine poles 
to the saddle of the third dog, and made him 
drag them. 

So, leading the dogs, they turned into the 
timber and soon came to where the child- 
ren were playing. Sinopah was the first to 
notice them, and what he saw was so sur- 
prising that at first he could hardly believe 
his eyes, and stood staring with his little 
mouth wide open. And well he might ; for 
except that they were packed dogs instead of 
packed horses, it was as if the women were 
moving camp. The first dog carried a small, 
new, and brightly painted parfleche, or raw- 
hide pouch shaped like an envelope, on each 
side of its saddle, and piled on top, and firmly 
lashed with a stout rawhide rope, were sev- 
eral small blankets and buffalo robes. The 
second dog also carried two parfleches and a 
couple of robes, and tied on top of the pack 
was a small Hudson's Bay Company copper 

37 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

kettle. Besides dragging the lodge poles, the 
third dog carried a bundle that looked like a 
small lodge skin, and that is just what it was. 

Sinopah found his voice: "What is it?" 
he cried. " Oh, how funny ; my dogs packed 
just like horses.'' 

And then Lone Bull and Otaki began to 
dance around the dogs : " Oh, Sinopah ! We 
know what all this is,'' they shouted. "Your 
mother and ours have given us a little lodge 
and everything to go in it." 

"Ai! They speak truth, little one," his 
mother told him ; ** come, we are going to 
make camp for you. Now, where shall it 
be?" 

" Let me lead the first dog and be chief," 
said Lone Bull. *' I will go ahead and choose 
the place for the camp." 

So the little procession started, each child 
leading a dog, the mothers following and 
laughing. They had worked long and hard 
for all this, and were very happy because the 
children were so excited and pleased. 

38 



Sinopah and his Playfellows 

Lone Bull, very quiet and solemn-faced 
now, led them under three large Cottonwood 
trees near the edge of the river. " We will 
camp here,'* he said. " In this place the camp 
will be well sheltered from the wind. Out 
there on the plain is plenty of rich grass for 
the horses. Here is good water for all. Back 
of the bluffs there, the plain is covered with 
buffalo. The hunters will make big killings 
and the camp will be red with meat. Come, 
Sinopah, sit you down here with me while 
the women put up the lodge and get things 
in shape for the night." 

The mothers laughed to hear him talking 
so wisely, and giving orders just as if he was 
a chief. They soon unpacked the dogs, little 
Otaki helping all she could. That was the 
way things were done by the Blackfeet. The 
women did all the work of packing and un- 
packing the animals, making camp and get- 
ting firewood and water. But they did not 
work too hard ; not nearly as hard as most 
white women who have a family and no serv- 

39 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

ants. The men rested when in camp and 
were waited on by the women ; but they did 
their share of work : in good weather and 
bad they hunted to provide food for their 
own families, and for all the widows and 
orphans and the old and crippled people of 
the great camp. That, and herding horses, 
fighting the enemy, and making their bows 
and arrows, their shields and clothing, kept 
them generally busy. 

When the dogs were unpacked and turned 
loose, the women tied four lodge poles to- 
gether about two feet from the tips, — they 
were fourteen feet long, — and then set them 
up in the form of a square-based cone, after 
which all save one of the remaining poles 
were laid up in a circle, their tips resting in 
the crotches formed by the tips of the origi- 
nal four. The upper edge of the lodge skin 
was then tied to the remaining pole at the 
proper height, and with it raised at the back 
of the lodge. It was easy then to bring the 
side edges of the lodge skin around and fasten 

40 



Sinopah and his Playfellows 

them together in the front with wooden 
skewers. Lastly, the poles were pushed out- 
ward at the bottom until the skin set tightly 
over them. 

The women then hung a curtain over the 
little round hole in front that answered for 
a doorway. The bedding of robes and blank- 
ets was carried in and made up in three 
couches. The parfleches, tightly stuffed with 
dried meat, dried berries, and pemmican, 
were taken in and laid open near the door, 
water was brought in the little kettle, and the 
work was done. It was a fine little lodge, the 
skin made of tanned elk hides and almost 
snow-white. At the base it was about ten 
feet in diameter, large enough for a dozen 
or more children to play in. 

Although Lone Bull and Sinopah were 
playing chiefs, they could not carry it out to 
the end. Long before everything was fixed, 
they went inside and got in the way of the 
busy women, but the mothers did not scold 
them. A small fire was soon made in the 

41 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

centre of the lodge, and when it had burned 
down to a bed of red coals some sheets of 
dried meat were quickly roasted on them. 
Never were there happier children than those 
three, sitting there in their own little lodge 
and eating the first meal in it. They at once 
began to plan their play for the next day, and 
at sundown were glad enough to go home 
with their mothers, leaving the big cotton- 
wood trees to guard their treasures during 
the night. 



CHAPTER IV 

sinopah's escape from the buffalo 

THAT evening the chiefs of the tribe 
held a council and decided to move 
camp from the Marias River, where 
they then v^ere, out to the Sv^eet-Grass Hills. 
These are three lone buttes about one hun- 
dred miles east of the main range of the 
Rocky Mountains, and right on the line 
separating Montana and the Canadian pro- 
vince of Alberta. There were then, however, 
no monuments to mark the boundary of the 
two countries. The line had not yet been 
surveyed. When the Blackfeet were told that 
the Americans — Long Knives — owned the 
country to the south of the Hills, and the 
English — the Red Coats — the land north 
of them, they only laughed, and said : "That 
is a mistake. Neither the Red Coats nor the 
Long Knives own any of this country. Away 

43 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

back in the beginning of things our god whom 
we call Old Man, made the world, and the 
animals, and us. When he made this part of 
the world he saw that it was the best of all, 
and so he gave it to us. It is our land ; the 
white people cannot have it." 

When they said that, the Blackfeet did 
not know how many the white people were 
and how strong. Since that time their game 
has all been killed, and their lands have been 
taken from them by the white race. 

But I must go on with my story. 

Very early the next morning, the camp 
crier went through the great camp shouting 
that it was to be moved to the Sweet-Grass 
Hills. Almost as fast as he went the lodges 
came down behind him. The men drove in 
and caught the horses, the women packed 
them, and in a very short time the long 
column of riders, loose and packed horses 
was strung out, heading north across the big 
plain. There were so many people, so many 
horses, that the column was all of three miles 

44 



Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 

long. Most of the men and women were 
splendidly dressed in buckskin clothes, beaded 
and painted and fringed ; and then the trap- 
pings of the horses, the queer pouches, sacks, 
and parfleches they carried, were also painted 
in bright colors, so that the whole procession 
was not unlike a rainbow snake moving out 
across the brown plain. It was a romantic 
and barbaric pageant of shifting color. 

On this morning there was something new 
in the column. Along in the centre of it, 
behind the horses that carried White Wolfs 
lodge and packs, and his family, walked the 
three dogs, one behind another, loaded with 
the play lodge and the little packs. Most of 
the children of the tribe had not seen them 
working the day before, and now they came 
crowding close on their horses, very much 
excited, and wishing that they could have 
such an outfit. Right behind the dogs were 
Sinopah and Lone Bull and Otaki on their 
ponies, and they were very much pleased at 
all this attention. 

45 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

" You must come and visit us when we set 
up the little lodge/' they kept telling the other 
children, and all promised that they would 
do so. 

"But here are many hundred little ones/' 
Sinopah's mother told him. "They can't all 
get into the lodge/' 

"Some can come in one time, and some 
another," he replied; "and it is nice just to 
stand and look at the outside of it." 

Sinopah was getting wise. 

There had been so much hunting near the 
river that the game had been driven far out 
on the plains, and that was the reason the 
chiefs had decided to move to another camp- 
ing-ground, where meat could be more 
quickly and easily killed by the hunters. It 
was about thirty miles across country to the 
Hills. For half that distance only a few old 
buffalo bulls and two or three bands of very 
wild antelope were seen. But when about 
ten miles from the middle butte the people 
could see thousands and thousands of buffalo 

46 



Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 

and other game close to the north, the east, 
and the west. Most of the men now rode 
ahead of the column to hunt. They could be 
seen chasing different herds of the buffalo on 
their swift, trained horses, and shooting them 
with guns and bow and arrows; and where 
they passed were left many of the big, brown, 
shaggy-haired animals lying dead on the plain, 
or standing all humped up on weakening legs, 
sorely wounded, and soon to tumble down 
and die. The sight made the hearts of the 
people glad ; there would be plenty of fresh, 
fat meat, many rich tongues to roast for the 
evening meal ; food for many, many days to 
come. The old men watched the chase with 
glistening eyes, and became so excited that 
many of them pounded their safe, slow horses 
with heels and quirt, forgetting for the mo- 
ment that they could not be made to go faster 
than an ambling trot; and so they fell to talk- 
ing of what big hunts they had made in their 
young days. 

To the east the hunters who had gone in 
47 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

that direction rode out of sight behind a low 
ridge on the plain and chased a herd of sev- 
eral thousand buffalo. At first the animals 
ran eastward, but the wind was from the west 
and as they always ran against it, they soon 
circled and came thundering over the ridge 
and straight toward the long column of the 
moving camp. The hunters saw the danger 
in that, but could not turn them. The wo- 
men and then the children began to shriek and 
cry, the old men to shout and try to drive 
a part of the column forward, the other part 
back, so as to save them from being gored 
and trampled by the frightened and wildly 
rushing herd. It was a terrible sight, that re- 
sistless mass of huge and sharp-horned animals 
coming straight for the centre of the column 
of traveling people. The leaders of the herd, 
the swiftest of the cows, had of course by this 
time smelled the riders, but they were now 
powerless to stop or to turn back, for the closely 
packed herd behind was pushing them ; they 
had to keep going or be trampled to death. 

48 



Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 

The old men had now succeeded in di- 
viding the column by a little gap, and were 
driving the women and children and the 
pack-animals to the north and to the south, 
crowding them and widening the gap as fast 
as possible. The confusion increased. The 
horses squealed and kicked one another, and 
some of the frightened pack-animals ran 
away, scattering their loads along the plain. 
A few old women, regardless of danger, rode 
bawling after them in hope of recovering 
their little keepsakes and treasures.* 

When the column was separated by a clear 
space of several hundred yards, the buffalo 
began passing through it, on each edge so 
close to the people that the wind caused by 
their rush could be felt, and their black, 
angrily gleaming eyes could be plainly seen. 
The noise of their thudding and rattling 
hoofs and clashing horns was terrific. 

Sinopah and his mother were right at the 
north edge of the gap. His little pony, al- 
ways very gentle before this, now began to 

49 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

get frightened and show signs of running 
away ; and before any one could prevent it, 
it bolted straight out toward the passing 
buffalo. 

" Oh, my boy ! My little boy ! Save him ! '* 
his mother shrieked, and madly whipping her 
horse, and without thought of the danger, 
took after him. 

Other women shrieked and called for help. 
The old men there yelled and followed after 
the mother, resolved to save her and the boy, 
and half crazed because of the slowness of 
their horses. 

Sinopah never once cried out or looked 
back. The people watching saw his little 
mouth tightly shut, saw him gripping the 
saddle with both hands, and they yelled to 
him to let go ; to fall off. And at the same 
time they knew that it was useless to shout to 
him, for even a clap of thunder would have 
been lost in the roar and clatter of the pass- 
ing herd. 

It was only a few yards across the clear 
SO 



Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 

space to the edge of the stream of buffalo. 
As the pony ran he seemed to go faster and 
faster. The people watching lost all hope, 
and so did the mother and the old men; but 
without a thought for themselves they only 
whipped their horses the harder and pressed on. 
The pony now had only a few more jumps 
to make in order to reach the buffalo, but, 
excited as he was, still, from force of habit 
he was watching out for safe footing. So it 
was that when almost on the point of hitting 
a badger hole he suddenly jumped sideways 
to save himself; jumped as quickly as a cat 
could have done, at a right angle to his 
course. Sinopah was not prepared for that, he 
was only bracing himself for straight-ahead 
running, and so when the pony jumped side- 
ways he was jerked loose from all holds. His 
little body actually flew out of the saddle, 
went spinning through the air, and down he 
came to the ground on his feet, then fell, 
and went rolling over and over on the short, 
thick grass, and almost into the stream of 

51 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

buffalo. The pony kept on. As he came to 
the herd the animals shrank and made way 
for him ; he entered the gap and in an in- 
stant it closed and he was lost to sight. 

Sinopah's mother reached him almost as 
soon as he stopped rolling. Jumping from 
her horse, she snatched him up from the 
ground and ran back as fast as she could go, 
thinking no more of the horse nor caring 
what became of it. One of the old men 
caught the animal and turned it over to her 
later. Just as she got back to the people the 
last of the long herd of buifalo passed, and 
the thunder of their hoofs soon died away. 
She set Sinopah down on his feet and looked 
at him, felt of him, all the men and women 
and children there crowding around. Sino- 
pah was not crying, nor laughing : just then 
his father came up on a big horse all cov- 
ered with foam, and he cried out to him : 
" Nina, awt-sim-o-ta no-tas. Nok-o-twe-in- 
is.*' (Father, my horse ran away. Go get 
him.) 

52 




HIS LITTLE BODY ACTUALLY FLEW THROUGH 1 



1 HE AIR 



Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 

Every one laughed then, and White Wolf 
was quickly told what had happened. Very 
gently he reached down and drew Sinopah 
up on the saddle in front of him : " I am not 
surprised that the boy escaped/' he said. " I 
feel that the gods are good to this son of 
mine. I am sure that they intend him to live 
to great age." 



CHAPTER V 

THE CLAY TOYS 

THE hunters had killed several hun- 
dred buffalo in the chase, so the 
chiefs ordered camp to be pitched 
right there beside a small prairie lake, and 
for five days the people were busy stretching 
and curing the buffalo hides, and cutting the 
tons and tons of meat into thin sheets and 
drying it. 

That first evening by the lake there was 
much talk about the narrow escape of Sinopah. 
A number of instances were recalled where 
the end had been different. 

"I remember a day away back in my 
youth, when Chief Three Suns lost his little 
girl in just such a way," said Red Crane. 
"Horses are uncertain animals. They don't 
have much sense at any time. You all know 
how often they go crazy with excitement. 

54 



The Clay Toys 

That was just what happened to Sinopah's 
pony to-day. The passing of that great stream 
of buffalo, their swift running, the thunder 
of their hoofs, all was too much for his little 
brain. He just couldn't help running too; 
some strange attraction there was which 
caused him to go right into the herd and run 
with it. 

" Well, about this little girl : The hunters 
had chased and killed many buffalo and the 
women were at work skinning the animals 
and cutting up the meat. The little girl sat on 
her pony watching her mother cut up a big 
fat cow, when over the hill came a big herd 
of buffalo that had been feeding at a distance, 
had seen the other herd running, and now 
were running to join it. The animals came 
close in passing, and suddenly the pony went 
crazy and ran to join them. Too late the 
mother ran to grasp its trailing rope. The 
little girl was tied fast in her saddle, so she 
could not fall out of it if she tried to. In about 
the distance of a bowshot that pony was right 

55 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

in front of the rushing buffalo, and they, 
running faster, soon closed in around it. Once 
in a while we could see the little girl's head 
above the shaggy backs of the great animals 
as her pony jumped along with them; and 
then suddenly, a huge bull stuck its head 
under the pony and tossed it and the little 
girl high in the air. Down they came on the 
backs of other buffalo, and that was the end 
for them. There was mourning in the camp 
that night, and for many a moon afterward 
in the lodge of Three Suns.'* 

Sinopah had not shown much interest in 
his grandfather's story, and now that it was 
ended he wriggled out of his mother's arms 
and going over to his father, said : — 

" But my horse is not dead, father ; it ran 
away with the buffalo. I want you to find 
and bring him back to me." 

" That I shall not do," the chief grimly 
answered. " I forbid any one in this camp to 
bring it in. 'T is an animal of crazy head and 
evil heart. Here, now, I give it to the sun, 

5^ 



The Clay Toys 

also the saddle that is on its back. Mother, 
make a new saddle for the boy. In place of 
the pony, I give him that gentle old black- 
and-white pinto to ride.'' 

" But I have my own horses ; plenty of 
them/' Sinopah objected. " Let me ride one 
of them." 

" Not until you are much older," his fa- 
ther answered. " They are all wild and too 
strong -mouthed for your little hands to 
guide." 

As soon as the meat was dried, the people 
moved on to the middle butte of the Sweet- 
Grass Hills, and from there through the gap 
to Milk River, which runs past the northern 
slope of the small range. The lodges were 
set up in the edge of the timber bordering 
the stream, and the play lodge of the child- 
ren was placed under some big trees close 
to the water. The tribe remained here for 
several moons. With their mothers to watch 
them, and often Grandfather Red Crane, 
Sinopah and Lone Bull and Otaki passed the 

57 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

long days playing in and around the little 
lodge. They had crowds of guests, children 
coming from all parts of the big camp to 
join in their sports. 

A favorite game of Blackfeet children, and 
one as old as the tribe itself, was the making 
of clay images of the different animals of the 
country. Not all clay was good for this pur- 
pose, some of it falling apart, or cracking, 
as soon as it dried. The best was dark gray 
in color, very fine-grained, and tough when 
mixed with a few drops of water to about 
an ounce of the material. Grandfather Red 
Crane discovered a foot-thick deposit of this 
good clay in a riverbank near the play lodge 
and called the children : " Come over here, 
all of you," he shouted ; " here is image earth 
in plenty. Now I want to see which one of 
you can make the best buffalo.'* 

With Sinopah and his two chums were a 
dozen other children. At the call of the old 
man, they all ran to him and with sticks and 
sharp stones began digging out lumps of the 

58 



The Clay Toys 

clay; pieces from the size of a hazelnut up 
to that of a hen's egg. These were angular 
in shape and very hard and tough, but that 
did n't matter. Each child found a good- 
sized, flat, smooth rock, and on it mashed the 
clay lumps to fine powder with a smooth 
hand-stone. The longer the stufFwas pounded, 
the more flour-like it became, the better it 
would be for making the images. Some of the 
children were in such a hurry to start making 
these that they did n't half pound their clay, 
and afterwards their work cracked and fell to 
pieces. 

Sinopah had never before played this game, 
so Grandfather Red Crane sat beside him and 
directed the work. It was work, hard work, 
the pounding of the clay, and the perspiration 
dripped from his forehead as he kept on until 
it was very fine. It was done at last, and the 
old man gathered it in a flat heap in the centre 
of the flat rock. They were sitting right at 
the edge of the river, and dipping his fingers 
into the water he sprinkled the clay two or 

59 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

three times, and then began kneading it, just 
as a cook does flour for bread. 

" Put your hand into it ; feel of it,'' old 
Red Crane told Sinopah every few minutes, 
and the boy kept doing so. 

At first the clay was very sticky, large 
portions of it hanging to his fingers; and 
although the stuff had been pounded very 
fine, it felt coarse and lumpy. 

" Now here is where a big mistake is often 
made,'' said the old man. " The clay feels as 
if it needed a lot more water, and if you were 
working it, you would surely sprinkle on too 
much. Really the stuff is almost wet enough. 
Now see : I put on just a few drops more, 
and now I work it a long time." 

This time the old man kneaded it steadily 
for as much as five minutes. Then he patted 
it down into a flat cake and ran the palm of 
his hand across it several times, making a 
smooth, dull polish on the surface. Then he 
pinched off a small portion and worked it 
with the fingers of both hands. The clay was 

60 



The Clay Toys 

now of just the tough softness of putty as 
the glazier uses it for setting window panes. 
** There ! it is just right," said the old man. 
" Mind that you do not ever make the stuff 
any softer." 

By this time all the other children had 
prepared their clay and were busily shaping 
out images of the buffalo. The older ones 
were quite skillful modelers and soon had 
two or three made and standing on the bank 
in front of them. Watching them, Sinopah 
began his work, taking a lump of the clay 
as large as he could hold in one hand and 
trying to shape it. He pinched and pulled, 
rounded and flattened the stuff for a long 
time, but could not get it to look like a buf- 
falo or any other animal. 

Grandfather Red Crane sat beside him, 
smoking his long pipe and saying not a word. 
Very often Sinopah would sigh, stop work, 
and look beseechingly up, and getting no 
offer of help, make another trial. And so it 
went on for a long time. Quite often the 

6i 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

old man muttered some words, but the boy 
did not hear. He was praying ; praying to 
the sun : " O great one ! O you maker of 
the day and ruler of the world ! '' he kept 
saying ; " give this boy of ours an enduring 
heart. Give him a brave heart. Give him 
the will to strive and keep striving for that 
which he wants." 

And then, laying aside his pipe, he reached 
over and took the shapeless lump of clay from 
Sinopah. " You have done your best,'' he 
said ; " I will now show you how to make 
an image." 

He made a roll of the clay so that it was 
much larger around at one end than at the 
other, and then pressed it somewhat flat. 
"The buffalo is very tall in front," he said, 
"and quite low in his hindquarters, so we 
will fashion his high hump and his big head 
out of the large end of the clay." 

He worked as he talked, pressing and 
squeezing and pushing the mass of stuffs with 
thumbs and fingers, and in a very few min- 

62 



The Clay Toys 

utes fashioned a very lifelike body of a buf- 
falo. Then he found a slender dead branch 
of willow and broke from it four pieces for 
the legs, and stuck them into the body in 
their proper place. This made the model 
look very queer, standing as it did on pipe- 
like, wooden legs. But the old man was not 
done with the work. He next took more clay 
and covered the legs with it, fashioning the 
stufFon the sticks, covering them with it com- 
pletely so that they very closely resembled 
the legs of the living animal. Much pleased 
with his success he set the little buffalo down 
before Sinopah and said : " There is a buffalo 
for you, my son; now let us see how good a 
one you can make." 

Sinopah was very proud of the gift. He 
shouted to the other children to come and 
look at it, and they crowded around him 
bringing the animals they had made. Not 
one of them was so good as that modeled by 
the old man, and with fresh clay they began 
at once to try to do better work. The first 

63 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

buffalo that Sinopah made was not a good 
one, but at least it had the shape of one in a 
rough way. It was plain enough that he had 
tried to make a model of that animal. Old 
Red Crane, smoking his long-stemmed stone 
bowl pipe, sat close by all the morning and 
encouraged him; the boy made one model 
after another, improving each time. By the 
time the sun was straight above in the sky 
he had made seven little buffalo images, and 
the last one was a very fair likeness of the 
great shaggy beast of the plains. 

It was now the middle of the day and the 
children were very hungry, but they were so 
interested in making clay buffalo that they 
would not go home to eat. Their mothers 
had thought of their needs, however, and 
coming very quietly to the play lodge under 
the trees, they built a small fire in it, and 
broiled plenty of fresh fat meat over the 
coals. Then they called the children and old 
Red Crane, and what a feast they all had. 
It was very simple fare; just meat, and a 

64 



The Clay Toys 

handful of dried service berries for each ; but 
none of them wanted anything else ; not even 
salt. Since the very beginning of things the 
Indians had lived on meat and a few berries, 
fresh or dried. It was the white man who 
taught them to have other wants. 

After eating their fill, the children hur- 
ried back to the river and commenced mod- 
eling again. Now that they had numbers of 
clay buffalo, they made other animals ; deer, 
bears, elk, bighorn, wolves, beavers, horses, 
antelope, and mountain goats. Along late in 
the afternoon each child had a really life- 
like set of these. Grandfather Red Crane, 
still with them, said several times that it was 
time for the little ones to go home, but still 
they lingered, finishing just one more ani- 
mal. They had eyes for their work only, but 
the old man was always looking about him, 
up and down the river, and across at the 
bluffs on the north side of the valley. Naught 
moved, or flew, or swam but what he saw 
it. 

65 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

So it was that he saw the bushes trem- 
bling and shaking a little way upstream from 
where he and the children sat, and he 
knew that this was not caused by the wind. 
He sat very still and watched. He wondered 
what it could be that was coming toward 
them. 

Presently he saw a small, black-eyed face 
peering through the leafy branches at the 
edge of the thicket. Then another, and an- 
other, and he knew one of them, the face of 
Weasel Tail, a boy who lived at the upper 
end of the big camp. " Ah-ha ! he is the 
leader of the boys up there,'' he thought, 
"and has come to raid my children here." 

But he said nothing, and watched and 
waited. And then, suddenly, with loud cries, 
little Weasel Tail sprang out of the brush, 
leading a dozen other whooping youngsters, 
and the whole band came skurrying down 
the shore and fell upon the little group of 
clay image-makers. 

Then what fierce excitement and strug- 
66 



\ 



The Clay Toys 

gling and wrestling took place for posses- 
sion of the toys. The little girls, of course, 
shrieked, and cried, and ran homeward for 
protection. But the boys of both parties just 
struggled with one another. Sinopah was 
tackled by an upper camp boy of about his 
own age, and over and over they rolled on 
the gravel almost into the water. Then the 
boy quickly sprang up, seized all the images 
he could, and ran away whence he had come, 
all the others of the band going too and 
carrying away nearly all the images that had 
been made. 

Through it all, old Red Crane had sat 
quietly laughing, and letting the struggle go 
which way it would. 

Now that it was all over, Sinopah ran over 
to him and asked: "Grandfather, why did 
you let those upper camp boys take our ani- 
mals?'' 

"Because they earned them," the old man 
replied. "That was the game. It was war. 
Those boys were your enemies and they con- 

67 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

quered. It is now your turn. You must go 
and raid them. No, not to-day. You all 
must send scouts to watch their play, and 
sometime you will have a good chance to get 
as good as they took from here.** 



CHAPTER VI 

THE STORY OF SCARFACE 

THE children of the upper end of the 
camp kept the clay animals they had 
captured just two days, and then 
they in turn were surprised by Sinopah's older 
comrades and lost them, and a number of 
their own toys also. In this encounter a boy 
of each party got very angry and hurt one 
another in the rough scramble. That even- 
ing when their fathers came home from hunt- 
ing there was much talk about the trouble; 
it was very, very seldom that Blackfeet child- 
ren quarreled and came to blows, and Red 
Crane and several other old men were called 
to decide what had best be done. 

In the morning all the children of the 
camp were called together and Red Crane 
gave them a short talk: — 

"My little ones," he said, "every day you 
69 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

are growing taller and stronger and will soon 
be strong men. The Blackfeet will soon de- 
pend upon you to fight the enemy, and they 
are all around us, and to keep our great plains 
and the herds of game upon them for our 
own use: that is one reason why you must 
never quarrel with one another. If you quarrel 
when you are children, you will quarrel with 
one another when you are older ; it is only by 
being all brothers, as it were, by loving one 
another and standing by one another, that 
you can keep the tribe from being conquered 
by its many enemies. Another reason is that 
the great Sun himself forbids it. Now, pro- 
mise, all of you, that there shall be no more 
of this." 

"We take your words! *' "We will quar- 
rel no more,'' they shouted in answer, and 
were soon off to play again. 

That evening, when the family were all 
sitting around the lodge fire, Sinopah rolled 
across the couch into his father's arms and 
asked: "Who is the Sun? How can he tell 

70 



The Story of Scarface 

us what to do ? Who is Old Man to whom 
I hear you praying ? '' 

"I am glad you asked," White Wolf re- 
plied. " It is time for you to know all about 
these things and to begin praying with us. 
Listen, now, and I will try to make you 
understand. 

"In the beginning was no one but Old 
Man. He was the same as any of us except 
that he had yellow hair, blue eyes, and a 
white skin, and had very powerful medicine 
which enabled him to do great things. The 
time came when he thought he would like 
to have a world, so he made this one. He 
made it flat, with a straight down-cut edge 
all around it. But that did n't suit him, so in 
different parts of it he made a lot of running 
jumps, and at every jump a mountain arose 
under him. Then from the mountains he 
cut gashes in the plains, and wherever he cut, 
valleys were formed and creeks and rivers ran 
in the bottom of them. This looked good 
enough for the world, and so he then made 

71 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

living things on it: people, animals, and all 
the grasses and things that leaf. 

" But when Old Man made the people he 
gave them paws instead of hands, so they 
were quite helpless and at the mercy of the 
bears and all other animals ; whenever they 
wanted to, the animals killed and ate the 
people. 

" Old Man was so busy going here and 
there inspecting the world, and the things 
he had made, that it was some time before he 
saw what was going on. When he did notice 
it, he sat down on a big rock and scratched 
his head many times and thought a long time 
before he knew what to do. He then called 
all the people to him and slit down their 
claws, so that they became fingers and thumbs, 
with which the people could do all kinds of 
work. He showed them first how to make 
bows and arrows, stone knives and arrow- 
points, and then taught them how to shoot 
and kill and cut up the animals. Lastly, he 
gave them fire with which to cook the meat 

72 



The Story of Scarface 

and keep themselves warm. Since that time 
we have been more and more the masters of 
the world. Better than all the other tribes 
he made, Old Man liked us Blackfeet. He 
saw that this part of the world was the best 
part, and so he gave it to us with all its many 
kinds of game. 

" Away back in those first days the Black- 
feet had much to learn. It was the fault of a 
woman that caused sickness and death. The 
first person to get sick was a little baby. 
The mother took it to Old Man and asked 
why it cried ; why it refused to eat ? 

"*It is sick,' he told her, 'and it may die.' 

" * Die? What is that?' the woman asked. 

" * It is what happens to an animal when 
men shoot it with their arrows,' Old Man re- 
plied. 'They cease to breathe, the heart stops 
beating, that is the end of them.' 

" * But my child must not die,' the woman 
cried. 'You made us; you are powerful; I 
pray you to keep it from dying.' 

" Old Man stood silent a long time. They 
73 



^Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

were at the edge of a river. At last he said 
to her : * Woman, it shall be as you say about 
this. Now here is a stone, and here is a piece 
of wood. I will throw into the water which 
one of them you choose. If it floats, then 
your child and all the people shall live for- 
ever ; if it sinks, then all of you and those 
yet to be born must die from one cause and 
another.' 

" Old man had picked up the rock and the 
piece of wood while talking, and he now held 
them out. * Choose the one I shall throw,' 
he told her. 

"The woman stood staring at the two 
things a long time, and the longer she looked 
at them the more frightened she became ; 
and at last she cried : * Throw the rock ! ' 

" Old Man did as he was told ; the stone 
struck the water with a big splash and sank ; 
the baby died in its mother's arms right there. 
Death had come to the people by a woman's 
unwise choice. 

" For a long time after that, whenever a 
74 



The Story of Scarface 

person became sick he soon died. The people 
had not yet learned about different medicines, 
and other ways for curing sickness. Nor could 
they get help from Old Man: he had told 
them all good-bye and gone into the West, 
his last words being that at some far future 
time, when they desperately needed him, he 
would return. Day after day they now cried 
out for him, and in vain. 

" A number of winters came and went, and 
all the time the people kept dying in great 
numbers. At last a young man who had a 
big scar on his face set out to visit all the 
animals, hoping that some one of them might 
tell him how to get rid of the scar. He trav- 
eled on and on for several moons, visiting in 
turn the bear, the beaver, the wolf, and all 
the others of the country. In those days all 
of them could talk. 

" ' O my brother ! ' he said to the bear, * I 
have heard that you have great medicine : 
I beg you to have pity and remove this scar 
from my face.' 

75 



« 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

* I am sorry, but I have n't the power to 
do that/ the bear replied. * Now there is the 
beaver ; he is the wisest of all us animals ; I 
advise you to see him about this/ 

" But the beaver could not remove the 
scar. He advised the young man to call on 
the badger ; the badger sent him on to the 
wolf; and so it went until Scarface had seen 
them all. Then he gave up all hope, and at 
last, arriving at the shore of a great lake, lay 
down on the sands to die. 

" Then it was that two swans came swim- 
ming close to the shore where he lay crying, 
and asked what was his trouble. Scarface told 
them, and when he had ended the swans said : 
* Brother, do not despair : one there is, greater 
than all you have asked for help. His home 
is out there on an island ; you must go to 
him.' 

" Scarface rose up and looked out on the 
great lake, and could see nothing but the 
blue water extending to the very rim of 
the world. * There is no island,' he said 

76 



The Story of Scar face 

mournfully, and sat down on the sand. * Oh, 
why did you put false hope in my heart ? 
Go, now, and let me die in peace.' 

" * But we told you truth, brother,' the 
swans replied, * Truly, an island is out there, 
but so far it cannot be seen from here. We 
pity you ; we wish to help. Come now and 
lie down on our backs and we will carry you 
to the sacred island. Never yet has any man 
of this world stepped foot on it.' 

" Scarface looked at the swans, at the lake, 
and then, reaching for his bow and arrows, 
which he had thrown away when he lay 
down to die, he went and lay down on the 
backs of the big birds. * It matters not where 
I die,' he thought. * It may as well be out on 
that great blue water as here on this sandy 
shore.' 

" The swans were big and strong, their 
backs made a soft couch. While they swam 
steadily and swiftly westward on the deep 
waters Scarface slept. When he awoke they 
were nearing a big island, and presently, 

77 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

having come to shallow water and near the 
shore, they told him to get ofF. * This is the 
place/ they said, * and yonder behind that 
grove of trees lives the great one ' ; and with 
that they turned, and rising on their power- 
ful wings flew away in the direction whence 
they had come. 

" Scarface waded ashore and right on the 
beach met the most beautiful youth he had 
ever seen. His clothing was of soft, white, 
tanned skins embroidered with quill-work 
of rainbow colors. 

" * You are welcome here,' said the youth. 
* I will tell you my name : it is Morning 
Star. My father is the Sun. My mother is 
the Moon. We live here on this island.* 

" Scarface then told who he was, and why 
he had come to this far place. Morning Star 
said that he had come to the right one to 
help him. 

" * But, brother,' he added, * before going 
to our lodge I want you to do something 
for me. Out there on that rocky point live 

78 



The Story of Scarface 

a tribe of big, sharp-billed birds. One by 
one they have killed my brothers, and I am 
forbidden to fight them. I want you to go 
and kill them for me.' 

" Scarface did not have to be asked twice. 
He strung his bow, ran out on the point, and 
began to shoot the wicked birds. They came 
at him with loud, harsh cries and tried to 
stab him with their bills, and one by one 
they fell around him until all were dead. 
Then the two young men cut off their scalps 
and carried them to the Moon. She was a 
beautiful woman and was dressed in strange 
and gorgeous garments. When Scarface was 
made known to her she hugged and kissed 
him, and then wept. * I cry from think- 
ing of my dead sons,' she said. * You have 
avenged their death ; you have killed those 
wicked birds, so now I take you for my son.* 

" She then took Scarface into her beauti- 
ful big lodge and gave him choice food. It 
was now almost night, and soon the Sun 
came home from his daily task of giving 

79 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

light and heat to the world. When told what 
Scarface had done, he gave him kind greet- 
ing. * Young Blackfeet/ he said, * you have 
done much for us this day : remain with us 
for a time and I will do something for 
you.' 

" Scarface did stay there a long time. 
Every night the Sun taught him sacred 
songs, and over and over showed him dif- 
ferent kinds of plants that were cures for 
different kinds of sicknesses. Also he said 
that he was the ruler of the whole world 
and that people must pray to him for what 
they need. And that they must love one an- 
other, and not lie or steal. That they must 
be very kind to the old people, and the widows 
and orphans. 

" And then, one night, the Sun rubbed a 
powerful black medicine on the young man's 
face which removed the scar. Then loading 
him with many beautiful presents he led him 
out of the lodge, the Moon and Morning Star 
following. Before them stretched the Wolf's 

80 



The Story of Scarface 

Road/ and the Sun pointed to it. * There is 
your trail/ he said. * Follow it and you will 
arrive at the camp of the Blackfeet. Do not 
forget that you are to teach them all that I 
have taught you.' 

"At that the Moon and Morning Star 
wept, and so did Scarface, for he had learned 
to love them as much as they did him. Tears 
almost blinded him as he started out on the 
shining trail that mounted before him far 
up into the sky. On and on he followed its 
straight way, and at last came to the lodges 
of the people. 

"So it was, O Sinopah, that the people 
got help in time of sickness and trouble. 
That shining Maker of the Day is our great- 
est god and you must ever pray to him, and 
make him presents.'* 

That night the little boy sat by the fire 
a long time and thought about all he had 
heard. Then he went to the doorway of the 

' The Wolf's Road, Mah-kwi Ok-so-kwi, is the con- 
stellation of stars we commonly call the Milky Way. 

8l 



Sinopahi the Indian Boy 

lodge and old Red Crane pointed out the 
Wolf's Road. He thought that he would try 
to climb it some day when he grew to be a 
man. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE BUFFALO TRAP 



THE leaves of the cottonwoods along 
the stream were falling; high up 
in the blue sky geese and swans and 
ducks were honking and trumpeting and 
whistling and quacking as they winged their 
way southward toward the land of Us-kus- 
sai Ne-po-yi : always summer. Milk River 
was not a good place to winter, because there 
was nowhere along its upper stretches much 
fuel ; so the chiefs held a big council one 
day to decide where the cold season should 
be passed. After a whole afternoon*s talk it 
was found that most of them preferred the 
upper Two Medicine River, and there the 
camp was moved after a couple of days' 
travel. The lodges were set up in a very 
heavily timbered bottom that was sheltered 

83 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

on the north by a high sandstone clifF sev- 
eral miles long. 

This place the Blackfeet called the Pis- 
kan, or, as we would say, "The Trap " : for 
here they were wont to decoy and kill — 
when everything was right — a whole herd 
of buffalo at one time. The last time the 
tribe had been there, Sinopah was so young 
that he did not know what was being done, 
but since then he had heard of the wonder- 
ful way in which the animals were there 
lured to their death, and he was very anxious 
to see it all. 

After the camp was well settled, prepara- 
tions were made for decoying or trapping a 
herd of buffalo. Only a few men in the 
whole tribe were able to do this, and so they 
were believed to have great " medicine " : 
that is, mysterious power given them by the 
gods. One of these men was White Wolf, 
the father of Sinopah. 

White Wolf came into his lodge one even- 
ing after a visit to the other chiefs, and said 

84 



The Buffalo Trap 

to old Red Crane: "There is not much 
meat left in the lodges: we have decided 
that it is best to try to make a big killing to- 
morrow; you are asked to decoy a herd." 

" Hah ! That all depends on many things/' 
the old man answered. " There must be a 
herd in the right place out there on the 
plain ; the wind must not be in the south ; 
and my medicine has to be right, else I will 
fail to do the work. I will begin now, how- 
ever, and try my best to bring meat. Send the 
camp crier around at once to notify the hunt- 
ers to sing the coyote song before they sleep." 

Old Four Bears was the camp crier. As 
soon as a horse could be saddled he mounted 
it and rode among the lodges from one end 
of the camp to the other, shouting : " Listen ! 
Listen, O ye hunters. If all be right. Red 
Crane will bring meat tumbling down over 
the cliff to-morrow. Pray then to the gods 
for success ; sing, all of ye, the lucky hunter's 
song, the song of the coyote — greatest hun- 
ter of all ; sing it this night before you sleep." 

85 



Sinopahi the Indian Boy 

As he went his way, prayer and song were 
started in every lodge, and within a short 
time several thousand men's deep voices were 
intoning prayers and quavering the strange, 
staccato tune of the song. Powerful and weird 
was the sound of it all in the still, frosty 
night. Outside the lodges the dogs sat up on 
their haunches and howled ; and from beet- 
ling cliffs and the far reaches of valley and 
plain the wolves joined in with long-drawn, 
melancholy cry. Had you been there, as I 
was, you too would have been strangely af- 
fected by it all. It was a very solemn and 
sacred time : men, women, children, even the 
very animals, were united in beseeching their 
gods for food. 

Sinopah sat very quiet and wide-eyed 
watching his grandfather. The old man first 
got out his paint-bag and rubbed reddish- 
brown ochre, color best loved by the gods, 
on face and hands ; then he sang the coyote 
song ; and lastly, having filled and lighted a 
pipe, blew smoke toward the four corners 

86 



The Buffalo Trap 

of the earth, toward sky and ground, and 
prayed. 

** Hai-yu, all-powerful Sun ! Hai-yu, Old 
Man ! Hai-yu, thou little under-water crea- 
ture," he began, " have pity on us and give 
us food. I pray you to give me power to 
bring much food to all your children here." 

And so he went on, praying and singing 
for a long time. Before the old man finished, 
Sinopah became very sleepy, but kept his eyes 
wide open and would not lie down : there 
was something in that prayer he wanted to 
know about : 

"Grandfather," he cried, when the old 
man was done, " you prayed also to a little 
under-water creature. What animal is that 
— a mink — a muskrat — and is it very 
powerful ?" 

Red Crane reached over and took the boy 
in his arms : " Little one, that is the one 
thing I may not tell you," he replied. " The 
little animal is my medicine ; my dream ani- 
mal. Like all other Blackfeet youths, and as 

87 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

you must do some day before you are grown 
and start out to war, I went away from the 
camp by myself and fasted many days and 
nights in order to get a vision ; that is, to 
get a medicine, a secret helper to guide me 
safely through the dangers of life. 

" From long fasting my body became 
weak, and at last it slept soundly. Then it 
was that I — my shadow — left the body 
and traveled far, and asked all whom I met 
for help. It was while I lay by the side of a 
stream that this certain little creature came 
up out of the water and sat on the shore near 
me. * I heard your call for help,' it told me, 
* and I have come to help you. When you 
pray to the Sun and Old Man, pray also to 
me and I will be your friend, your helper, 
coming often to you when your body sleeps 
and telling you what to do, and what not 
to do. But you must never tell any one my 
name.' 

" So it was, little Sinopah, that I got my 
medicine, my secret helper. I am old ; I 

88 



The Buffalo Trap 

have been through many battles; through 
dangers of all kinds ; and have suffered no 
harm. And many, many times this little 
under-water creature has come to me in my 
dreams and given me warnings. Truly, it is 
a powerful secret helper that I have.*' 

" Grandfather, when can I go fast and get 
my medicine ? '' Sinopah asked when the old 
man had finished. 

" Oh, not for a long time. Not until you 
have seen sixteen or eighteen winters,'' he 
replied. 

And then, tucked under warm, soft buf- 
falo robes by his mother, the boy almost at 
once fell asleep. 

The next morning every one was up be- 
fore sunrise and ready for the trapping of the 
buffalo. Some young men had slept out on 
the plains back of the cliffs, and hurrying 
into camp they reported that a band of five 
or six hundred of the animals were grazing 
on the second ridge north of the valley. Old 
Red Crane said that his dream had been favor- 

89 



SInopah, the Indian Boy 

able. He tossed up a feather, found that the 
wind was from the northwest, and gave orders 
for the people to go to the rock-piles. In a 
few minutes several hundred men and women, 
girls and boys, were climbing a trail out of 
the valley at the lower end of the cliffs. They 
went on foot, Sinopah*s father leading him 
and helping him up over the hardest places. 
Not until all of the climbers had reached the 
top of the cliff, and disappeared out on the 
plain, did old Red Crane start. He rode a 
small, swift horse that was covered with a 
buffalo robe, and himself wore a robe of the 
same kind. He went some distance down 
the valley and climbed out of it by an easy, 
sloping trail. 

Meantime Sinopah, with his father and 
the other people, had come to the top of the 
cliffs at their eastern end, and then turned 
westward along the edge of them. After 
walking a half-mile or more, they came to 
where they were highest and steepest, there 
being in that place a straight drop of more 

90 



The Buffalo Trap 

than a hundred feet to the boulder-covered 
slope below. Here on top of the cliff, a little 
way back from the brink and a hundred 
yards apart, began two ever-widening rows 
of rock-piles that extended out on the plain 
for more than a mile like an enormous letter 
V. Beyond them was a low ridge, and still 
farther north another ridge, on which a large 
herd of buffalo were feeding. 

White Wolf now turned to the people and 
told them to hurry and conceal themselves 
behind the piles of rock, and they scattered 
out along the two lines of the V, one or two 
and sometimes three people stopping and 
lying down beside each pile. Sinopah was 
very impatient : he kept jerking his father's 
hand and asking questions, but for what 
seemed to him a long time the chief would 
not answer. 

At last not one person was to be seen out 
there on the plain : nothing was in sight but 
the rows of rock-piles, and far away the black 
mass of feeding buffalo. Then White Wolf 

91 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

lifted the boy up on his shoulder and began 
to explain : ** Pretty soon you will see your 
grandfather riding out toward that first 
ridge/* he said, "so watch for him." 

Sinopah looked for the old man ; looked 
so hard that water came to his eyes and he 
had to wipe it away. When he looked off 
again, he saw what appeared to be a small, 
single buffalo climbing the first ridge out 
toward the buffalo herd. His father told 
him that the object was his grandfather on 
horseback. The old man was lying down on 
the animal, so as to make it appear that it 
had a high, humped back, and covered as 
both he and the horse were with buffalo 
robes, they did, indeed, together look like a 
small buffalo. 

From the top of the ridge the plain ex- 
tended out with an even rise to the next 
ridge, on which the herd was feeding. As 
soon as the old man reached it, he began to 
ride in circles, each time nearer and nearer 
those whose attention he sought to attract. 

92 



The Buffalo Trap 

And quite often he tickled the horse be- 
tween the legs with a stick, making it kick 
up its heels in a very funny manner. 

"If you were there/' the chief told Sino- 
pah, '* you would hear your grandfather mak- 
ing a very queer moaning sound — m-m-m- 
ah! m-m-m-ah! — just as a buffalo calf does 
when it is in pain, or is frightened/' 

** M-m-m-ah ! m-m-m-ah !'' Sinopah re- 
peated. " I will learn to do that well,'' he 
said, and when I am grown up I will call the 
buffalo to the pis-kan." 

" Well, then, watch ! Watch closely : you 
are going to see a very strange thing pretty 
soon," his father told him. 

At first the big herd of buffalo feeding on 
the far ridge paid no attention to the object 
circling toward them, thinking, no doubt, 
that it was one of their own kind just wan- 
dering around. But when it kicked up its 
heels, first one of the old bulls and then 
another raised its head and began to stare. 
Then, when it was close enough for its plain- 

3Z 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

tive m-m-m-ah cries to be heard, the cows be- 
gan to take notice, thinking that what they 
saw was a calf in distress. Several of them 
walked toward it a little way, sniffing the air, 
but the wind was wrong for them and their 
noses could get no scent of it. 

" Now ! Now watch closely, little son,*' said 
father, and the boy stared harder than ever. 

One of the big cows suddenly started and 
ran forward a few rods, and the whole herd 
moved, too, and gathered in a close bunch 
behind her. Thus they stood for a few mo- 
ments, staring and tossing their heads, and 
then, led by the big old cow, down the ridge 
they came with a tremendous rattle and 
thunder of hoofs, and raising a thick cloud 
of dust behind them. 

This was what old Red Crane on his little 
horse had been praying for, and now he turned 
and rode swiftly toward the wide gap of the 
V-shaped rock-piles. And swift as he rode, 
the buffalo were swifter and gained on him 
steadily. 

94 



The Buffalo Trap 

"Oh! Oh! They will catch up with him 
and trample him to death," Sinopah cried 
in terror. 

" No, no, he is not in danger," his father 
answered; "watch closely now." 

In a few minutes Red Crane rode within 
the V, the buffalo right after him, and soon 
the whole herd was in it, too. Then, as the 
tail end of the band passed rock-pile after 
rock-pile, the people lying behind the heaps 
sprang up and shouted, and wildly waved 
their robes. That scared the rear animals, 
that alone could see and hear the people, 
and they ran harder than ever, so crowding 
those in front to run faster and faster. The 
band was nearing the cliff now, and were 
almost on top of Red Crane and his little 
horse. Then it was that he suddenly turned 
and rode straight east between two of the 
rock-piles of that side of the great V. Turn- 
ing to follow him, — the lead cows still 
thought they were running to the rescue of 
a calf in trouble, — the herd saw people 

95 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

jump up from behind the rocks, and were 
now for the first time as badly frightened as 
were those in the rear. Quick as a flash they , 
turned from that danger and headed west, 
only to be confronted with people rising 
from the rock-piles on that side of the V. 
Here, now, were people on each side, and 
people back whence they had come. But 
none were to be seen to the south, and south- 
ward they turned, running faster than ever in 
their great terror. Red Crane was now safe. 
Sitting on his dripping horse, he watched 
the animals go, and raised a prayer to the 
gods and his little secret helper, asking that 
the buffalo should keep straight on. 

In the mean time White Wolf had run with 
Sinopah to the edge of the cliff, and several 
hundred yards east of the place where the 
two lines of the V came close together, and 
there the two waited to see the end of it all. 

Here, now, was the most anxious moment 
and the greatest danger; the leaders of the 
herd might turn before coming to the cliff, 

96 



r-f 




HEN IT WAS THAT HE SUDDENLY TURNED 



The Buffalo Trap 

trample the people behind one or the other 
of the rows of rock-piles, and so circle back 
to the plain in safety. But no ! They kept 
straight on; and Sinopah, watching them 
with staring eyes and open mouth, was never 
so excited in his life : he felt as if he was go- 
ing to burst from the dreadful danger of it 
all ; the terrible thunder of hoofs; the wicked 
gleams of wild black eyes set in shaggy hair. 
And now the leaders of the herd saw the 
edge of the cliff, and tried to stop and turn 
to one side. But those behind them could 
not see it and kept pressing forward with 
tremendous and irresistible force. There 
could be no stopping. The leaders were 
swiftly pushed off from the cliff, and follow- 
ing them went the living stream of the herd, 
whirling and whirling through the air, fall- 
ing, falling from that sheer height, and 
crashing down onto the boulders at the foot 
of the cliff. Hundreds of the buffalo went 
over the ledge, and only the last end of the 
herd, just a few animals, turned at the last 

97 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

moment and escaped through the people to 
the plain. 

Most of those that went over the cliff were 
killed outright by the fall, and those only- 
crippled were soon put out of their misery 
by the hunters down there. Then began the 
skinning of the animals and the cutting-up 
of the meat and carrying it to the lodges in 
the camp. When night came the work was 
all done and the people rested and were 
happy. Pretty soon the moon came up and 
old Red Crane took Sinopah outside. Over 
at the foot of the cliff wolves and coyotes and 
foxes were howling and yelping as they fed on 
the bones and bits of meat that had been left 
there. "Listen to our little brothers/' he said. 
"It is a great feast that we are giving them 
this night." 

In some such way in the long ago, our own 
ancestors used to trap their food. That was 
when they had no weapons but the bow and 
arrow and flint knife, and meat and wild ber- 
ries were all they had to eat. 



CHAPTER VIII 



SPINNING TOP 



WINTER was now come, but the 
people were very comfortable in 
their lodges in the Two Medi- 
cine Valley. After all, the winters are very 
mild on the plains close under the Rocky 
Mountains in Montana. Sometimes a bliz- 
zard swoops down from the north, bringing 
some snow and intense cold, but it seldom 
lasts long. W^ithin a few days a Chinook 
wind comes out of the west, a wind that 
started from the Japan Current of the Pacific 
Ocean, eight hundred miles away, and this is 
so warm that it kills the blizzard and melts 
the snow. Sometimes, even in January, this 
wind is so very warm that it makes the air 
feel as if summer had really come. This is the 
way it usually is on the northern Montana 
plains in winter. But about once in twenty 

99 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

years the north wind keeps the west wind back 
for a couple of months or more. Then the 
snow falls deep, and the thermometer stays 
away down below zero, and the animals and 
birds die by the hundred. At such a time I 
have seen more than a hundred antelope, a 
whole band, lying frozen to death on the 
plain. 

This was a good winter; too good, the 
boys and girls thought, for they wanted the 
river to freeze over so they could play on 
the ice. So it was that one night when Sino- 
pah was going to crawl into his warm buf- 
falo-robe couch, he made a short prayer to 
Ai-sto-yim-sta, Cold-Maker. He was the 
god who lived in the north, and who made 
raids into the southland, hidden always in 
the swirling snow of the terrible blizzards 
he made. 

" Hai-yu, Ai-sto-yim-sta," little Sinopah 
piped shrilly, "have pity on all of us child- 
ren. Come quickly ; come this night and 
make ice for us to play on." 

lOO 



Spinning Top 

His mother heard him and cried out to 
White Wolf : *' Now what do you think this 
naughty boy is doing ? He prays Cold-Maker 
to come and make ice for him." 

" Is it so ! '' his father exclaimed. " Sino- 
pah, come here. I have something to say. 
Now, listen ! '' he went on, when he had 
the boy close in his arms. " Cold-Maker is 
a bad god, and you must never pray to him 
to come. He is not like the Sun, the great 
giver of life ; he is the giver of death. Many 
and many a one of our people he has done 
to death. You pray him to come and make 
ice. Well, away out there on the plains are 
many of our hunters. They are coming 
slowly toward camp ; very slowly because 
their horses are carrying heavy loads of meat 
for the women and children, and hides to be 
tanned into soft, warm robes. Now, suppose 
that Cold-Maker does come ; come now, 
this night ? You will have the ice to play on, 
yes. But other children will have no fathers: 
they will be lying dead out on the plain.'* 

lOI 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

"Oh, I did n't think of that/' said Sinopah. 
" Cold-Maker is a bad god. I will never pray- 
again to him. But I would like to have some 
ice." 

"The ice will come soon enough/' said 
White Wolf. "Now, go you to your robes 
and sleep." 

It was not long after this that there would 
be heavy white frost on the trees and the 
grass in the early morning, and thin ice along 
the edge of the river in the still places. Little 
by little this ice thickened and crept out 
from the shore, so that White Wolf had to 
break it when he carried Sinopah with him 
for the daily bath. When the two of them 
plunged into the cold water they shivered and 
cried, "Ah-ha-ha-ha-ah!" and shrank from 
the feel of it; but oh, how good they felt, 
when back in the warm lodge. And then one 
morning when they went to the river, they 
found it frozen clear across, the ice so thick 
that White Wolf had to get a heavy piece of 
drift and break a hole in it for a bathing-place. 

1 02 



Spinning Top 

"Oh, hurry! hurry!" Sinopah cried. ''I 
want to get back to the lodge and put on my 
clothes, and come out here to play." 

But his mother would not let him start 
out until he had eaten all of the fat meat on 
a roasted buffalo rib. Then, taking up his top 
and the whipper for it, away he ran to the 
river where nearly all the children of the 
camp were playing on the ice, nearly all of 
them spinning tops. 

Sinopah had a fine top that his grand- 
father made for him from the tip of a buf- 
falo bull horn. It was about three inches 
long, an inch or more in diameter, flat on the 
upper end, and dull-pointed. There was no 
string for it, as the spinning was done with 
a whip. This was a slender stick about two 
feet long, to an end of which were tied 
three or four fine buckskin strings about a 
foot and a half in length. The top was started 
spinning on the ice with the thumb and mid- 
dle finger of the left hand, and then lashed 
frequently with the whip to keep it spinning. 

103 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

A favorite play was for three or four children 
to start their tops at the same time, each one 
trying to make his top spin the longest. 

As usual Lone Bull and the little girl 
Otaki, Sinopah's best friends, were with him 
this morning and the three spun their tops 
together, sometimes one and sometimes an- 
other of them winning the long-time game. 
Sinopah won most of the games, though, 
and he began to think that he could spin 
tops as well as any one of the great crowd 
of children there on the ice. When he had 
won three games, one after another, from 
Lone Bull and Otaki, he was sure that he 
was the best player of all, and said so. 

Crow Foot, a boy older by some years, 
heard the boast and cried out : " You say 
that you are the best spinner here ? Well, I 
say that I am the best. Come on, and we 
will see whose words are true. We will start 
spinning our tops at the same time, and the 
one of us who spins his longest shall win the 
other's top." 

104 



Spinning Top 

" Don*t you do it, Sinopah/' said Lone 
Bull. "He is bigger than you; he has spun 
tops two or three winters before we com- 
menced; he will surely win your top." 

" Yes, and such a nice top it is, and his only 
an old wooden one," said Otaki. " Don't 
play with him." 

**Oh, I am not afraid; I can win," said 
Sinopah. 

And in another moment the two boys 
were spinning their tops in the centre of 
a big crowd of children. No one spoke or 
moved ; the only sound to be heard was the 
swish and slat of the whip-lashes, and the 
dull buzzing of the tops on the ice. 

After a long time Crow Foot made a mis- 
strike with his whip and the top wobbled. 
"He loses," the children cried ; but no, he 
made another quick snatch at it and it 
righted up. 

Then Sinopah's top spun into a small, 
rough place in the ice and began to jump. 
" Oh, Sinopah ! be careful ; take courage," 

105 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

the crowd shouted at him, and just then he 
made a hard stroke with the whip that 
knocked the top over on its side and sent it 
rolHng into the crowd. Crow Foot snatched 
up his top, chased the other one and recov- 
ered it, and danced around holding both up 
in the air, shouting : " I win the bull-horn 
top ! I win Sinopah's fine, black horn top." 
Sinopah cried. Lone Bull and Otaki tried 
to comfort him, but he cried all the harder 
and kept saying : " Oh, my top ! It is gone. 
What will my grandfather say ? He worked 
so long to make it for me. Oh, I want my 
grandfather ; maybe he will get it back for 



me." 



Grandfather was right there ; he was never 
far away from the boy, always watching to 
see that he came to no harm. 

" Now, what is the trouble ? " he asked ; 
but Sinopah was crying so hard that he could 
not answer, and so Lone Bull told him how 
Crow Foot had won the top. 

" Well, well. That is bad," said the old 
1 06 



Spinning Top 

man, and he led Sinopah away up the river. 
Lone Bull and Otaki going also. 

" You must n't cry. No matter what hap- 
pens, you must not cry," Red Crane began. 
" Women and girls may cry, but boys and 



men never." 



" But, grandfather, my top ! Crow Foot 
has it ; he won it from me. Will you get it 
back for me?" Sinopah whimpered. 

" I will not," Red Crane answered. " This 
is going to be a lesson to you. Remember 
this — you, too. Lone Bull : those who gamble 
are always poor. Also, gamblers are not good 
men : they use up so much time playing 
games that they seldom hunt, and their wo- 
men and children have not enough meat to 
cat. Neither are they of any account in war. 
If all our men gambled, the enemy would 
soon kill us all off." 

" But, grandfather, I have no top now," 
said Sinopah, doing his best not to cry any 
more, " and see how clear and hard the ice 
is. I want to spin a top on it." 

107 



Sinopahi the Indian Boy 

"Well, if you are very good, and will 
promise never to gamble again, I will begin 
making you another top to-morrow," said 
the old man. " Now, you will all go with 
me after some red willow. I want the bark 
of it to mix with my tobacco. There is a 
fine patch of it growing close to the shore 
above here." 

Never was there clearer ice than that on 
the river this morning. It was as clear as a 
glass window pane. Everything in the water 
under it could be seen plainly, the rocks, 
gravel, and sand of the bottom, and the trout 
lying almost still in the deep places. 

While they stood looking down at a very 
large trout, suddenly a long, slender, dark 
brown animal with big, webbed hind feet, 
came swimming down into the deep hole. 
The trout saw it and turned and swam like 
a flash toward the branches of a sunken tree. 
The animal was a faster swimmer ; it went 
so fast after the trout that it was just a brown 
streak in the water, and it caught the fish, 

io8 



Spinning Top 

and, holding it crosswise in its mouth, started 
to swim back upstream. 

"Ha! Am-on-is" (otter), "killer of fish," 
old Red Crane cried, and stamped on the 
ice. 

That frightened the otter ; it let go of the 
bleeding and dying trout and swam away 
downstream. 

" O-kye-hai ! You children down there," 
Red Crane shouted, " spread out and stamp 
on the ice. Scare back an otter swimming 
toward you." 

There must have been all of a hundred 
children in the top-spinning crowd. The old 
man had to shout two or three times to make 
them understand, and then they all spread 
out and stamped the ice with their feet, and 
pounded it with their tops and whips, making 
altogether a terrible noise. 

Old Red Crane, in the mean time, had 
gone to the shore and picked up a rock big- 
ger than his head, and now he stood with it 
raised high above his head watching for the 

109 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

otter to come back. This it soon did, the 
children below having scared it, and now it 
swam close to the shore where the bank went 
straight down, hoping to find an air-hole, or 
a beaver-hole into which it could crawl, and 
then climb up into the beaver's sleeping- 
place above the water, where there would be 
plenty of air. 

There was no hole of any kind, except an 
open place in some rapids quite a long way 
above, and the otter had to breathe before it 
could get back to that place. Its lungs were 
full of air, and it had to let it out and draw 
it in again, or die. So when it was quite 
close under Red Crane, it rose to the under 
surface of the ice and blew out the air against 
it, a great long wide silvery bubble. But be- 
fore it could breathe it in again. Red Crane 
dashed the rock down right over it. Crash ! 
went the brittle ice, the jar scattering the big 
bubble into a hundred little bubbles, and 
frightening the otter away at the same time. 
There it was without air in its lungs, and no 

I lO 



Spinning Top 

way to get any except at the hole at the 
rapids, so far, far away. That place the poor 
animal tried to reach. It swam slower and 
slower, Red Crane and the children follow- 
ing it. Very soon it had to expand its lungs, 
and as there was no air, water instead flowed 
in through its nose and filled them. That 
was the end. The animal gave a few fee- 
ble kicks, then sank to the bottom of the 
river, and lay still. It was dead. Dead from 
want of that little bubble of air it had lost. 
Could it have kept that, letting it out against 
the ice, and then drawing it in again, it could 
have traveled for miles, or until it came to 
an open place where it could crawl out of 
the water. 

Grandfather Red Crane was all excited 
now. " Who would have thought we would 
get a medicine animal so easy as that ?'' he 
said. " It was just lucky that it stopped to 
make its bubble in front of me. But it is a 
good sign. Sinopah, we will save the skin for 
you. When you grow up we will make a 

III 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

bow-and-arrow case of it for you, and I know 
that it will bring you good luck in war." 

And with that he sent the children to 
camp after an axe with which he chopped 
a hole in the ice. Then he fished out the 
otter with a forked pole. It was a big otter ; 
all of four feet long from the nose to the tip 
of its tail. The old man forgot all about the 
red willow, and dragging the animal, and the 
children following, he went straight back to 
camp, where he carefully took off its fine 
furred hide and stretched it to dry in the 
right shape. 



CHAPTER IX 

SINOPAHS'S FIRST BOW 

IT is time for our son to learn to use the 
bow/' said White Wolf one evening 
when all the family was sitting in the 
light and warmth of the little lodge fire. 

" Ai ! So it is/' old Red Crane exclaimed. 
** I will begin work on one for him to- 
morrow, and it shall not be a wooden bow ; 
it shall be made of horn." 

"I wouldn't take so much trouble as 
that/' said White Wolf " A bow of wood 
will be good enough for him to begin with." 
"But what does my time amount to?" 
Red Crane asked. " I am old, old. I tell 
you it makes me sick when I see the younger 
men start out to hunt, or leave to make war 
against the enemy, and I can't go with them. 
All I can do now is to stay here in the camp. 
All I can do is to teach our little Sinopah ; 

113 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

teach him to shoot and hunt ; teach him to 
be good and kind and brave. My time is 
all for him. So it is that he shall have a fine 
little bow of horn." 

" Father, don't you worry about these 
things," said White Wolf. " I can hunt for 
us all, and I can go to war. All I ask of you 
is to be happy. It is great work that you 
are doing for our little Sinopah. We are all 
glad that you do so much for him." 

The next morning the old man went up 
in the hills with Sinopah to get some buffalo 
horns. They soon found the heads of some 
freshly killed animals, and took the horns 
from three of them, all big, shiny black 
horns of three- and four-year-old bulls. 
Back they went then to the valley and 
threw the horns into a hot spring, where 
they were to remain a couple of days and 
get soft. 

On the third day old Red Crane took the 
horns out of the spring and found them so 
soft that they could be split with a knife as 

114 



Sinopah's First Bow 

easily as if they were just soft wood. So he 
took them home to the lodge and began 
making a bow, Sinopah watching every part 
of the work, and asking many questions about 
it, so that he could some day make such 
bows for himself. 

First, the old man cut the horns into long 
splints of different size, the larger ones an 
inch wide, and a quarter of an inch thick. 
The larger pieces were for the middle of the 
bow, the smaller ones for the ends, and all 
were neatly shaved, so as to lap closely one 
on the other, - — to splice, as such work is 
called ; all the pieces being stuck together 
with a very strong waterproof glue made by 
boiling down the hoofs of the buifalo. When 
this was done, the old man scraped the bow 
with sandstone, and then a knife, until from 
end to end it was as smooth as glass, and of 
the right shape, heavy and thick in the 
middle, and from there tapering each way 
out to the tips. Lastly, to make the bow all 
the stronger, and springy, he glued strips of 

IIS 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

sinew to its whole outer length, and wrapped 
it with sinew bands about four inches apart. 
When finished, the bow was about three 
feet long. 

The next thing was to string the bow with 
a fine cord of twisted sinew, and then the 
arrows were made, the shafts of straight, hard, 
heavy greasewood, the points of thin iron 
bought from the traders, and the feathering 
of quills of wild-goose wings. 

The old man made eleven of these iron- 
pointed arrows, and then went to work on 
another shaft with which he took especial 
pains, working a whole evening in just scrap- 
ing and polishing it, and soaking it full of 
grease. Sinopah, watching him, grew restless, 
and asked why he worked so long on just one 
arrow shaft. 

" Because this is to be a medicine arrow ; 
a lucky arrow," Red Crane replied. 

He then took from his own quiver an 
arrow that had a very small, thin, sharp point 
of black obsidian, or natural glass. In the 

ii6 



Sinopah's First Bow 

Yellowstone country there is a whole moun- 
tain of such stuff. 

" Now, I am going to take this point off 
and fasten it on this shaft/' said the old man, 
" and you are never to use it except when in 
danger. My father made the point for me, 
and three different times it has saved my life. 
By that you can see it is great medicine.'' 

" Oh, grandfather ! Tell me about it," said 
Sinopah, snuggling up to him and hanging 
onto his hand so that he could not work. 

"Well, you shall hear," the old man an- 
swered, lifting the boy into his lap and smooth- 
ing the hair back from his forehead. "Ai! 
But the first time was long ago. Why, I was 
not much older than you are now. My father 
had made a horn bow and twelve arrows for 
me. Eleven of the arrows had common white 
flint points and the twelfth one carried this 
fine black one. Just as I tell you now, my fa- 
ther told me then : I was not to use it except 
when in great danger. 

" One day I went hunting with two boy 
117 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

friends. It was a very hot day and we walked 
in the timber close to the river. In my left 
hand I carried my bow and two arrows; one 
a common arrow, the other having this medi- 
cine point. All the rest of the arrows were 
in a quiver slung at my back. 

" My two friends walked in the middle of 
the timber and near the river, and I kept at 
the outer edge of it. After a long time I 
came to a very thick patch of willows, so 
very thick that I could not see into it. In 
there I heard a queer noise ; a snuffling noise, 
and little faint cries as of something in great 
pain, just such a noise as a dog makes when 
it is badly hurt. I thought it was a dog, one 
of our camp dogs, that had got hurt and had 
come out there to die. So I pushed into the 
thicket, and suddenly came face to face with 
a big wolf. Now, wolves, as you know, never 
harm any one. They are afraid of man. But 
this wolf was different. A big fluff of white 
foam covered its mouth, and by that I knew 
it was a mad wolf, and very dangerous. When 

ii8 



Sinopah's First Bow 

it saw me it raised up and made ready to 
jump at me, and at the same time I fitted the 
medicine arrow to my bow. The wolf opened 
its mouth and made ready to jump at me, 
and I shot the arrow right down its throat. 
It did jump, but never touched me. It fell 
almost at my feet and died, and I got back 
the arrow. 

" The next time I used the arrow-point 
was some winters later. I had grown to be 
a man. I had taken the point off from the 
little arrow-shaft, and fitted it onto one such 
as men use. I had been running buffalo one 
day, and killed four with my common ar- 
rows. Then I shot a big, fat cow, and at the 
same time my horse fell and broke its leg. 
The cow was only wounded, and very mad. 
She charged me and I jumped to one side 
and fired a common arrow at her; it only 
stuck in her shoulder. 

" Four times she turned and charged me, 
and four times I fired an arrow, but none of 
them did any good. I had but the one arrow 

119 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

left, this one with the medicine point. I made 
a little prayer, fitted it to the bow, and then 
shot it when the cow turned to charge me 
again. Straight into her heart it went and 
down she fell, and I was saved.'' 

" Yes, that makes two times ; now tell about 
the last one," said Sinopah, for the old man 
had stopped talking and was looking with 
dreamy eyes at the fire. 

"Oh, yes, the last time," Red Crane an- 
swered, sitting up straight again. " No. I 
will not tell you about that, because you 
might have bad dreams about it. All I can 
say is that I had a fight with a Crow chief 
and killed him with the medicine arrow." 

Sinopah wanted to know all about the 
fight, but he had now become very sleepy, 
and was put on his couch before he had time 
to ask more questions. 

On the next day old Red Crane made more 
arrow shafts, these being made sharp at the 
end, instead of having iron points. They 
were for shooting at marks, and for a long 

1 20 



Sinopah's First Bow 

time the old man made Sinopah practice 
with them every day. At first he shot them 
at little sagebrush bushes, or a piece of robe 
thrown onto a bush ; but after a couple of 
moons he was taught to shoot at a ball of grass 
thrown up in the air. He became so skillful 
that he could pierce it nearly every time. 

Then, one morning after the early bath in 
a hole cut in the ice, old Red Crane took Sino- 
pah out to hunt with the real arrows. It was 
a very cold morning; the trees were covered 
with thick, white frost, and all up and down 
the valley they were popping with a noise 
like rifle-shots, while the ice on the river 
heaved and cracked with a rumbling like that 
of far-oflF thunder. 

Not far below the camp they heard prai- 
rie chickens (sharp-tailed grouse) clucking, 
and presently saw a number of them sitting 
in a small cottonwood tree. The birds felt 
so cold that they sat all crouched on the tree 
limbs, and paid no attention to the man and 
boy approaching them. 

121 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

"Well, you are close enough to them 
now," Red Crane told Sinopah when they 
had got so near that they could see the shiny 
black eyes of the chickens. 

Sinopah dropped his robe then and fitted 
an arrow to his bow, one of the arrows with 
iron point, and took aim at a bird at the top 
of the tree. 

** No, no ! You must not shoot that one,'* 
Red Crane said, " for it would drop flutter- 
ing down among the rest and scare them all 
away. Shoot at the very lowest bird in the 
tree." 

Sinopah took quick aim and let the arrow 
fly ; and as the bow-cord twanged the chicken 
fell down from the limb with the arrow in 
it, and after a few flutters of its wings lay 
still on the blood-stained snow. Sinopah never 
said a word, but his snapping eyes showed 
how excited and happy he was as he shot 
another arrow at the next lowest bird in the 
tree. 

This time he missed, but a third arrow 

122 



Sinopah's First Bow 

brought the chicken down, and three more 
arrows got two more birds. He was about 
to shoot at a fifth bird when Red Crane 
seized his arm : "That is enough/' he said. 
" You have one for your mother, one for 
your father, one for yourself, and one for 
me. Remember this : the gods do not love 
wasters of life. They made the animals and 
birds for our use, but we may kill no more 
than we need.'* 

Sinopah never forgot that. Afterwards, 
during all his life, he was careful never use- 
lessly to take the life of beast or bird. Most 
of the white hunters of our country have not 
done that. They have killed the buffalo and 
deer, the pigeons and ducks and other birds, 
just for the fun of seeing them die. Had 
they shot only just enough for food, there 
would still be plenty of game from one end 
to the other of our great land. 

Having picked up the four chickens, and 
the arrows that had been shot, the old man 
and the little hunter started back toward 

123 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

home. Had you been in Sinopah's place, 
without mittens on that cold morning, you 
would have had your fingers frozen stiff. 
But he never felt the cold, and his hands 
were almost as active as on a summer morn- 
ing. That was because he had to bathe in 
the frozen river every day. 

On their way through the timber near 
camp they saw a cotton-tail rabbit sitting in 
the edge of a rose-brush thicket. ** I would 
like to have it,'* said Red Crane, "but not 
unless you can kill it when it is running. 
Now, fit an arrow to your bow and see what 
you can do when I throw one of these chickens 
that way." 

They were only forty or fifty feet from 
the rabbit. The old man tossed a chicken 
and the little animal started ofi^ on the jump 
through the snow, passing right in front of 
Sinopah. He aimed about a foot ahead of 
it, and zip ! the arrow struck it fairly just 
behind the shoulder. It was a fine shot. Sino- 
pah shouted as he ran to pick it up, and when 

124 




IT WAS A FINE SHOT 



Sinopah's First Bow 

he returned and held the rabbit up before Red 
Crane, the old man shouted too and made 
a little prayer of thanks to the gods. *' Never 
was there such a fine boy as this one you 
have given us/' he said. 

And at home he said to White Wolf: 
"Now, listen! Sinopah is going to be a 
great chief. I know that he is." 

" I believe you," White Wolf replied. " I 
am very proud of him." 



CHAPTER X 

TRACKING A MOUNTAIN LION 

NOW, while old Red Crane was teach- 
ing Sinopah to hunt and kill game 
with bow and arrow, Otaki's mother 
was teaching her to do woman's work. The 
little lodge had been set up for the children 
in the shelter of thick willow brush where 
the wind could not blow, and they now had 
many happy days in it. Lone Bull, Otaki's 
brother, was with them, and the two boys 
hunted, while Otaki gathered small pieces of 
deadwood for the fire, brought water from 
the river in a small pot, and did all the other 
work of the lodge, such as sweeping the hard, 
smooth earth floor with a broom made of a 
bunch of willow brush, and straightening out 
the soft robe couches. 

Some days the boys would hunt a long 
time and come home to the little lodge with- 

126 



Tracking a Mountain Lion 

out anything. Other times they would bring 
in a couple of prairie chickens, or one or two 
rabbits. Arriving at the door of the lodge 
they would cry out : ** Otaki, we have arrived. 
Come get the meat we have killed.'' 

The little girl would then come out and 
say : " Kyai-yo ! What a fine killing my hunt- 
ers have made. Go inside now, and I will 
soon have meat on the fire." 

Then, while the two boys sat on their 
couches before the fire and dried their wet 
moccasins, she took her little knife from the 
sheath dangling from her belt, and skinned 
and cleaned the rabbits or birds, then brought 
them inside and roasted them on the hot, 
bright-red coals. It is true that the meat did 
not taste so good as that of the buffalo and 
deer and elk and antelope that their fathers 
brought to camp, but they pretended that it 
was even better because they had killed it. 
They were very proud of being able to get 
their own food from the timber along the 
river. White children would not have liked 

127 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

the chicken and rabbit meat that Otaki 
cooked, because she did not put any salt on 
it. The Indians never used salt before the 
white people taught them to put it in their 
food, and even to this day many of them do 
not care for it. 

One day the two boys went away down 
the river, farther than they had yet gone on 
their hunts, and found three bullberry bushes 
still full of fruit. When first ripe, these ber- 
ries are so sour that no one can eat them; 
but the freezing weather of winter turns cer- 
tain of the acids into sugar, and then the ber- 
ries taste something like currants, only very 
much better. They have both a tart and a 
sweet taste, and not only the Indians but 
birds are very fond of them, the prairie chick- 
ens especially. 

When the boys found the three bushes, or 
rather small trees full of the fruit, the first 
thing they did was to strip off bunches of the 
ripe, red berries and eat them. They won- 
dered how it was that the birds and the 

128 



Tracking a Mountain Lion 

women of the camp had not long since found 
and taken them all. 

They soon ate all they could hold, and 
then said Lone Bull : " We should have all 
these berries for our lodge ; there is a great 
quantity of them; enough to last us all 
winter/* 

"You talk wisely/' Sinopah answered. 
" But of course gathering berries is not men's 
work. It is best that we bring Otaki up here 
to gather them." 

" But she is n*t strong enough for that," 
Lone Bull objected. "Of course she should 
come and help, but I think that we ought to 
get our mothers to do the work." 

"Well, then, you go after them and I will 
stay here and keep any one who may come 
along from taking the berries," said Sinopah. 
" No one shall have them : they are our find." 

At that Lone Bull started off on the run 
for camp. Sinopah ate a few more berries 
and then began to get cold from standing 
still so long. He started to walk around, 

129 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

faster and faster, and farther and farther from 
the trees, and on a larger circle than ever came 
to some strange-looking tracks in the snow. 
They were big, round tracks, but not far 
apart ; not near so far as he could step. Most 
of them showed the heel of the feet, so it was 
easy to see which way the animal had been 
going. He looked at the tracks a long time. 
"Now, if Grandfather Red Crane were only 
here, he could tell me what kind of an ani- 
mal made these tracks," he said to himself. 

Sinopah made another circle and once 
more came to the strange-looking tracks. 
** I do wish I knew what animal made them," 
he said. "Well, I will just follow them a 
little way and perhaps I can learn what it 
was." 

The trail of the animal was away from 
the river and toward a sandstone cliff. Sin- 
opah followed it through the timber. At one 
place the animal had stood on its hind feet 
and clawed the trunk of a cottonwood tree, 
scattering many small pieces of the bark 

130 



Tracking a Mountain Lion 

around on the snow. A little farther on, it 
had stood looking and listening for some- 
thing, for here the snow was all packed 
smooth by its big feet. Still farther on, it had 
sat down in the snow, and had left the im- 
print of a long tail. By that Sinopah knew 
that this was not the trail of a bear, for bears' 
tails are no longer than a boy's hand. 

" It is n't a wolf either," he thought, "for 
wolves have very bushy tails. The mark of 
this one in the snow looks as if it has very 
short hair. Why, it may be that I am follow- 
ing an otter." 

Thinking that, he hurried forward on the 
trail and soon came near the sandstone cliff. 
Here there was not so much timber. The 
ground sloped sharply up to the foot of the 
cliff, and on it were scattered a number of 
large and small rocks. He could see the trail 
winding around among the rocks, and said to 
himself again, ** It must be an otter's trail." 

He did not stop to think that the tracks 
were ten times too large to have been made 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

by an otter. Nor did he know that an otter, 
when traveling through snow, does not walk : 
it lays its front feet back against its breast 
and pushes itself along with its hind feet, 
making a smooth trough in the snow with 
two dots in it at intervals, like this : — 



Sinopah now began climbing the slope, 
and soon came to the very foot of the cliff. 
Right in front of him the trail ended at the 
mouth of a narrow low hole in the rock. 
He walked right up to it and tried to see in, 
to see the animal, but a few feet back there 
was nothing but the darkness of night. Then 
on the floor of the cave he saw some bones; 
big leg-bones and rib and backbones that 
looked like those of buffalo and deer, and he 
suddenly became scared. It was enough to 
scare any boy, that black cave, the freshly 
gnawed bones with shreds of red meat still 
hanging to them. He suddenly gave a little 
squeal of fright and ran back down the slope 

132 



Tracking a Mountain Lion 

and toward the bullberry patch as fast as he 
could go. 

No one was there to meet him and he ran 
on and on toward camp, soon meeting his 
mother and old Red Crane and Lone Bull 
and Otaki and their mother. As quickly as he 
could, he told the old man about the trail of 
the animal and the cave and gnawed bones. 

" Ah ha ! And you saw gnawed bones in 
the cave ! '' Red Crane exclaimed. " And the 
tracks leading to the place were big and 
round ? Well, my young hunter, it was not 
an otter you were following, it was a lynx ; 
perhaps even a mountain lion." 

" Kyai-yo ! '* the women cried out. " To 
think that he followed a sometimes killer of 
children ! " 

And his mother snatched him up in her 
arms and said that he should not go any- 
where alone again for a long time. 

" Huh ! the boys must learn,'' said Red 
Crane ; " and anyhow no harm has been 
done. Now, son, you go tell your father to 

^33 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

come with his guns and the dogs, and be 
sure to tell no one else ; we want all the ber- 
ries and the animal in the cave for ourselves.'* 

White Wolf was at home in the lodge. 
When Sinopah told him what was wanted 
he snatched up his rifle, called the big dogs, 
and set out so fast on the trail that the boy- 
had to run to keep up with him. They soon 
overtook the others, and in a few minutes all 
were looking at the trail in the snow, while 
the dogs sniffed at it and growled, their hair 
bristling straight up on their backs. 

" It is the trail of a mountain lion," said 
White Wolf 

"It is," Red Crane echoed, "and a very 
large one, too." 

White Wolf started to follow the trail and 
made the dogs keep behind him. After them 
came old Red Crane, and then the women 
and children. They all soon arrived at the 
foot of the slope leading up to the cave, and 
then White Wolf told them to stand where 
they were while he went on with the dogs. 

134 



Tracking a Mountain Lion 

When quite near the foot of the cliff, he 
told the dogs to go on, and they rushed ahead 
on the fresh trail all in a bunch and barking 
eagerly. But the moment they arrived at the 
mouth of the cave, and looking in smelled 
the animal there, all at once they dropped 
their tails between their legs and backed 
away with hoarse growls. They were not 
hunting-dogs like our hounds. All they were 
good for was to guard camp, and, before the 
time of the horse, to carry burdens. White 
Wolf scolded them, but could not make them 
go into the cave. They just whined and 
shivered, and looked at him with pleading 
eyes. 

Seeing that they would not go in, White 
Wolf at last cocked his rifle and walked 
slowly to the entrance to the cave, then 
stooped down and looked in. At first he 
could see nothing ; but he kept looking and 
looking, and after a time saw two greenish, 
shining spots away back in the darkness, that 
he knew was the light of the animal's eyes. 

^3S 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

Then he raised his rifle and fired it after a 
long and careful aim. 

Boom! went the gun, and the powder- 
smoke for a moment hid the cave from the 
view of those watching at the foot of the 
slope. When White Wolf fired his rifle he 
at once sprang off to the left of the cave, and 
none too soon. Out of it and through the 
smoke came a yowling, tawny mountain lion 
that rolled and twisted around on the snow 
while blood streamed from a bujlet-hole in 
its neck. The dogs now turned brave and 
closed in on it, only to be bitten and clawed 
by the furious big cat, and knocked off in 
all directions by its big front paws. Several 
of them never stopped running until they 
reached camp. 

Sinopah and the other children, as well as 
the women and the old man, stood watch- 
ing all this from the foot of the slope, all of 
them so excited that they never spoke a 
word. They saw White Wolf hurriedly re- 
loading his rifle, and were fearing that, after 

136 



Tracking a Mountain Lion 

all, the wounded animal would get up and 
run before he could shoot it again. But no ; 
with one last weak kick it suddenly lay still 
in the snow, and then they all ran up the 
slope to look at it. Sinopah took hold of the 
forelegs and tried to lift it, but he could n't; 
the animal was far bigger and heavier than 
he. 

"Ha ! It is a she deer-killer,'' said White 
Wolf; **and by the looks of her there must 
be some young ones back there in the cave. 
Here, father, hold my gun while I go in 
there." 

He was not gone long, and returned with 
a wee little mountain lion in his arms. It 
was no larger than a house cat, and its light- 
colored, fuzzy fur had faint dark spots. It 
was so young that it did not know enough 
to be afraid of man, and when White Wolf 
stroked it and rubbed its head, it purred just 
as our house cats do, only much louder than 
they. 

" Oh ! Oh ! Give it to me, father," Sino- 

137 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

pah cried, and soon had it wrapped in a 
corner of his robe, where it kept right on 
purring. 

While White Wolf and old Red Crane were 
skinning the big cat, the women and child- 
ren went back to the berry patch, where they 
soon gathered nearly all of the fruit on the 
trees, and then they went home to their 
lodges, where they spread the berries on clean 
rawhides to dry. A part of the fruit was given 
to Otaki to dry in the little play lodge. 

That evening, as Sinopah sat beside his 
grandfather with the mountain lion kitten in 
his arms, he asked why service-berry bushes 
had so many sharp thorns. 

** Old Man made them grow there," his 
grandfather replied. '* Listen. It was this 
way: Old Man made the world, and all the 
animals and trees, and everything on it. But 
if he was a world-maker, he often was very 
foolish and forgetful. 

" One day Old Man was walking on the 
edge of a cutbank beside the river, and hap- 

138 



Tracking a Mountain Lion 

pening to look down he saw clusters of 
beautiful red berries in the water. He was 
very hungry, so off came his clothes and off 
he dived from the bank to get some of the 
fruit. But although he swam and dived a long 
time he could see no more of the berries, so 
he climbed up the bank and lay down. Look- 
ing at the water again, there were the ber- 
ries in it, just where he had seen them before, 
and off he dived again after them, and could 
not find them when he got into the water. 

"And so he kept climbing out on the 
bank, and diving again after the berries, 
until he became so weak that the last time 
he nearly drowned. It was all he could do 
to get back on the bank, and there, happen- 
ing to look up, he saw that the little tree over 
his head was full of berries. At that he tossed 
a stick at the branches, and saw that when 
they moved, the branches and the berries in 
the water also moved. Then all at once he 
saw that he had nearly died diving after the 
shadow of the berries, and that made him 

139 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

very angry. As soon as he could he got up 
and beat the tree with a club, and made 
thorns grow thickly on its branches : * There ! 
after this all your kind shall have thorns/ he 
said, * and those who want your fruit in plenty 
must beat it off with clubs/ 

" So it is to-day, when our women gather 
quantities of the berries for winter use, they 
have to club it from the branches in order to 
save their hands/' 



CHAPTER XI 

SINOPAH JOINS THE MOSQUITO SOCIETY 

ON a summer day several years after 
the people wintered on the Two 
Medicine, old Red Crane and White 
Wolf sat on the shady side of their lodge 
smoking a big pipe turn-about, and idly 
watching a crowd of children playing tag. 
Swiftest of them all was Sinopah, although 
some of the other boys were older and taller 
than he. White Wolf laid down the smoked- 
out pipe and smiled happily as he softly 
rubbed his small, firm hands together. In- 
dians, you know, especially those of the 
plains, were noted for their small and beau- 
tifully shaped hands and feet. 

" Well, my son," said Red Crane, " why 
your smiles — what is it that makes your 
heart glad ? '' 

" That is it," White Wolf replied, point- 
141 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

ing at Sinopah, who was far in the lead of 
the boys and girls who chased him. " I tell 
you this, father/' he added, " there is in this 
child of ours the making of a great chief. 
Some day, if we live, we are going to be 
very proud of him." 

"Ai! Ai! That is so. You never spoke 
truer words," old Red Crane agreed. " How 
good he is, and how fearless ! And how popu- 
lar also ! Children from all parts of the camp 
are ever coming to ask him to play with 
them." 

" That is the great point in the making 
of a chief," said White Wolf. " No matter 
how brave a man is, no matter how success- 
ful in war, if his people do not love him, he 
can never become a leader." 

" Huh ! As if I did n't know that ! " Red 
Crane exclaimed. " Why, son, that is what 
I was always teaching you in your young 
days ; because of your goodness, of your 
kindness to the poor, to the widows and 
orphans, you are chief to-day." 

142 



Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 

White Wolf made a gesture of assent. 
" Well/' he said, " it is time that we take 
Sinopah in hand for his training. As a be- 
ginning, let us have him join the Su-is-ksis- 
iks at their next meeting/' 

Here, now, I have something to explain 
that is very interesting, and that is that nearly 
all Indian tribes of the country had a num- 
ber of societies, some of them so secret that 
only a very few of the most prominent men 
ever learned their mysteries. The tribe that 
had, and still has, the most fraternities, or 
secret societies, is the Hopi, or so-called 
Moqui tribe of northern Arizona. There are 
several hundred secret orders in this tribe, 
the greatest of them being the Snake and the 
Flute societies. It is the Snake order that 
gives every two years the great snake dance, 
in which, after many secret rites and prayers 
in their kiva, or sacred house, the members 
perform a public dance, during which they 
carry live and deadly rattlesnakes dangling 
from their mouths. 

H3 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

All these societies in all the tribes are for 
a purpose. The Hopi, or " People of Peace/* 
as they call themselves, live in a desert coun- 
try, and depend upon their little plantings 
of corn, beans, and squash for their food. 
They are not, and never v^ere, hunters and 
warriors. Now, the most important thing in 
all the world for the Hopi is rain ; rain to 
make their gardens yield a plenty of food. 
So it is that the object of all their secret so- 
cieties is to bring the rain. All the secret 
rites in the kivas, all the dances, have that 
end in view. 

See, now, how different were the Black- 
feet. They were hunters, and wanderers over 
a great country extending south from the 
Saskatchewan to the Yellowstone River, a 
distance of seven hundred miles, and from 
the Rocky Mountains eastward for several 
hundred miles. That was their country, their 
hunting-ground, and on it swarmed thousands 
and thousands of buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, 
and many other kinds of game. Along the 

144 



Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 

borders of this great stretch of country were 
many tribes always trying to enter it and kill 
the game, and to save themselves the Black- 
feet were obliged to make war on them and 
keep them out of the country. So it was that 
the fraternities or societies of the Blackfeet 
were societies of warriors and for the making 
of warriors. The least of these was the so- 
ciety of the Su-is-ksis-iks, or Mosquitoes, 
which White Wolf mentioned. 

The Mosquito Society was composed en- 
tirely of young boys, but at the head of it were 
two or three old men who were their teachers, 
as they may be called. It was the duty of 
these old men to give talks to the boys on 
the right way to live, to instruct them in the 
ways of war, to pray for their long life and 
success, to teach them certain dances, and 
above all to make them honor and obey the 
teachings of the gods, especially the Sun. 

Evening came. Tired and hungry, Sino- 
pah entered the lodge and sat by his father's 
side. His mother set before him a long, heavy 

145 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

rib of boiled buffalo meat, a dish of service 
berries, a bowl of soup, and he ate a big 
meal. Pausing once between mouthfuls, he 
said : ** We played tag and none caught me. 
We went into the river and I was the leader 
in the race when we swam to the far shore 
and back.'' 

White Wolf and Red Crane looked at 
each other and smiled, and the old grand- 
father said to himself: " Ai! Ai ! The time 
has come." 

The meal was soon over, and then White 
Wolf said to the boy : " My son, your days 
of tag-playing are about over. Your grand- 
father and I have made up our minds that 
you are big enough now to become a Su-is- 
ksis-ik. He will take you to the next meet- 
ing of the society." 

" Oh, that will be good,'' Sinopah cried. 
"I am to become a member of a warrior 
band. How long will it be before I can join 
a higher one ? I would like to be an Ai-in- 
i-ki-quan." 

146 



Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 

" Oh, that time is yet some winters ahead/' 
his father answered. " You have to go to 
war before joining that order, you know/' 

The Ai-in-i-ki-kwaks, or Seizers, were 
the police of the great camp. It was their 
duty to guard it in time of danger and to 
carry out the orders of the chiefs. For in- 
stance, at times when there were great herds 
of buffalo near camp, the chiefs would order 
that no one should go out by himself to hunt 
and so scatter the animals and make it hard 
for all the hunters to get a plenty of meat 
and hides. Certain days were set when all 
the men would go together and make a big 
hunt. If any one broke that rule, the chiefs 
would order the Seizers to punish him, and 
punished he was. Sometimes the man was 
whipped and his weapons smashed; or, worse, 
he might not only be whipped, but his lodge 
and property would be torn to pieces and 
some of his horses killed. 

Besides the Mosquitoes and Seizers, there 
were a number of other orders, the Buffalo 

147 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

Bulls, They Who Carry the Raven, the Dogs, 
all parts of the great society of the tribe, which 
was called I-kun-uh-ka-tse, All Friends. 

On the morning following the talk of 
White Wolf and Red Crane, preparations 
were begun for Sinopah's entrance into the 
Mosquito Society. First of all, Red Crane 
changed the manner of dressing the boy*s 
hair. It had been daily combed and plaited 
into four long braids, two of them falling 
just behind, and two just in front of the ears. 
To these was now added a fifth braid, a 
slender one drooping beside the one just in 
front of the right ear, and the end of it was 
wrapped with a narrow strip of otter fur, 
believed to be the favorite fur of the Sun. 
This fifth braid was the scalp-lock. Were 
Sinopah to be killed in battle the enemy 
would take it as a trophy of the fight. 

Right after the morning meal the boy*s 
mother had begun to make a pair of mocca- 
sins for him, and she kept at the work for 
some days. The tops or uppers of them were 

148 



Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 

solidly embroidered with brightly colored 
porcupine quills, each small quill tightly 
fastened in place with many stitches of very 
fine sinew thread. 

In the mean time, old Red Crane fumbled 
around in his several pouches and finally 
found four beautifully tanned, snow-white 
antelope skins. " These your grandmother 
tanned the summer before she died,'' he told 
Sinopah. " I have been saving them for you. 
They are for your first war-suit. Watch, now, 
how I cut them, for after this you will have 
to make your own clothes." 

The old man then spread a skin out flat 
on his couch and cut it into an oblong square 
after measuring one of the boy's legs. A few 
stitches then made of the material a wide- 
flapped legging. Next, the flaps were fringed 
by slitting them every quarter of an inch 
along their length, and then ornamented with 
tufts of red-dyed horsehair and parts of scalps 
that the old man had himself taken in battle. 
The other legging was made in the same way. 

149 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

The other two skins were fashioned into 
a loose, big-necked, fringe-seamed shirt 
that reached nearly to the knees. Snow-white 
weasel skins with black tail tips were hung 
all around the neck and down the length 
of the sleeves, along with more red horse- 
hair and scalp-locks ; and lastly, Red Crane 
painted several blue and yellow things, that 
looked like small lizards, on the back and 
front of the garment. Sinopah asked what 
animal they represented. 

"That I cannot tell you,'* the old man an- 
swered. " It is my medicine ; my secret 
helper that came to me in my fasting dream. 
Yes, in that fast, when my spirit wandered 
far, I found this little water animal, and it 
promised always to help me when I prayed 
to it. It has helped me. It has saved my life 
in many a dangerous place, so I put the mark 
of it on here and will pray to it, to help you 
until you get a medicine, a secret helper, for 
yourself.'* 

"And when shall I get it ?** Sinopah asked. 
150 



Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 

"Let me see; let me see," Red Crane 
mused. " You are now of age twelve win- 
ters. Three winters after this will be your 
time to fast. You will go alone to some 
sheltered place away from camp. You will 
lie there without food. You will pray con- 
tinually to the Sun ; to the Moon ; the Stars ; 
to all the world animals. Maybe you will 
lie there four — five — or even seven days, 
eating nothing, drinking nothing except the 
water that your mother will take you every 
day. And you will sleep ; you will dream. 
In your dream, when your shadow, your spirit 
goes forth on adventure, then you will find 
your secret helper. I shall pray that it be, 
that which you find, very strong medicine." 

" It will be strong medicine ! " Sinopah 
declared. " Grandfather, I have the feeling 
in here, right here in my heart, that in that 
fasting time I shall find a very powerful 
secret helper." 

The meeting of the Mosquito Society was 
still some days off, but there was no more 

151 



Sinopahy the Indian Boy 

than time for Sinopah to get ready for it. 
The skin of the otter that Red Crane had 
captured under the river ice was fashioned 
into a combined bow-case and arrow-quiver, 
and ornamented with bands of fine porcu- 
pine embroidery. A new bow and new ar- 
rows were made by Red Crane and White 
Wolf to put into it. The bow was longer 
and more powerful than any that the boy 
had yet handled, but he was a big-muscled 
boy and could easily bend it. The arrows 
were real war-arrows ; of thin, straight shafts, 
firm feathering, and small, sharp, barbed 
points that would pierce far into any living 
thing and could not be pulled out ; also, a 
new beaded belt was made, this to hold the 
knife-sheath and support the breech-clout 
that covered the loins. 

Then came at last one of the great days 
in the life of Sinopah. Dressed all in his new 
war-clothes, with otter-skin bow-case slung 
on his back, he went with his grandfather 
to the meeting of the Mosquitoes. It was 

152 



Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 

held in a very large lodge of one of the 
chiefs. Many boys were there, sitting close 
together on the couches, but none of them 
had as fine clothes or were themselves as 
handsome as was he. But they were all his 
friends. When he entered they cried out : 
" Oh, here is Sinopah. Welcome, brother, 
welcome.'' 

Red Crane went to the back of the lodge 
and sat with two old men. They talked to- 
gether for a few minutes, and then one of 
them, first calling out for silence, made a 
long prayer. He begged the Sun, and all the 
gods of the sky, the earth, and the waters, 
to give them all long life and happiness, and 
always a plenty of game for food. At the 
end of the prayer all the boys cried out, 
" Yes, all you great gods, have pity on us ; 
have pity on us." 

Next the old men took up their drums 
and beat them in time to a war-song they 
sung. The boys all arose then and danced 
around and around the fireplace, old Red 

^53 



Sinopah, the Indian Boy 

Crane often stopping them to show one of the 
dancers his mistakes. Then after the dance 
they rested, and one of the old men gave 
them a talk on kindness of heart. During 
another rest, old Red Crane spoke about 
bravery, saying, among other things, that for 
the good of the tribe one must be ever ready 
to give his life. 

And so, in dancing, in listening to talks 
by the old men, the day passed, and toward 
sundown, very tired and happy, Sinopah 
went home to rest. All the evening he was 
very quiet, and was first of all the family to 
go to bed. Early the next morning a little 
girl stuck her head in through the doorway 
of the lodge and called out : " Oh, Sinopah, 
get up and come with us. We go to the 
river to play.** 

The boy raised himself up and looked at 
her. " No, little sister," he answered ; " I shall 
go no more to the river to play with you. I 
am now a Mosquito. I have now to learn 
how to be a man.*' 



Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 

So it was. In one short day, young as he 
was, Sinopah passed out of his childhood days 
into those of his youth, the beginning of the 
life of one of the greatest of Indian chiefs. 
On that day he for the first time went with 
his father to hunt, and returned in the evening 
with meat of his own killing tied to the 
saddle. With his new bow and on a swift 
horse, he had joined in a buffalo run and 
killed a young bull. 



THE END 



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